KRATE - Swarm of Voices

Though Krate was given birth by noisemaker Chris Shortt (of VERIN) as well as Roland Zwaga (Acidrodent, Construct) it is hard to  put these two down as the sole creators of the project due to the tremendous amount of talent associated with their debut album. Properly titled "Swarm of Voices", this ten track industrial and sludge filled treat finds the likes of Ecstasphere, Apocryphal Throne, Noire Antidote, Corlyx, Static Logic, W.O.R.M., Moaan Exis, Monolog, Corvax, Cardinal Noire, as well as Zwaga's previously mentioned projects Acidrodent and Construct as guest artists. That is to say that every song on the album aside from the final track has a guest appearing on it. Despite the fact that the amount of talent is varied they are all bound by the simple premise of dark electronics. With the base and root of "Swarm of Voices" laid out by Shortt and Zwaga, we are given a structured and well put together collection of tracks with varying ranges of influences from slow-building industrial, to the heaviness of dark ambient tones as well as the all-out assault of rhythmic noise.

To get a better understanding of Krate's original music without interruption, you would need to shuffle the album's tracklist around ever so slightly. Starting from the bottom with track ten 'Out of the Corridor, Into the Fields', I was fed a dark but gorgeous experimental song which featured a very slow working yet meticulously built rhythm. Elements of glitch were present within this song as the cacophonous echo of a cave gave way to eerie noises. What really brought this song to life for me was the violin that became present in the song later in it; it gave it a Gothic texture and operated well adjacent to the creepy atmosphere felt throughout the rest of the song. 



Now, I don't want to sit here and write an essay on the album as I possibly could do this based on the amount of bands involved. However, I would like to point out two stand out tracks that I feel deserve a mention above the others. This is not saying that there is a bad song to be found on the album; each song can stand and deliver. But, based on my personal preferences, these songs made my skin crawl like not other. That being said, the first song I would like to talk about is 'Liquid Light'. 

'Liquid Light' features Ecstasphere and Apocryphal Throne. Though I am familiar with Ecstasphere's rhythmic noise and ambient oriented discography I had to dig a little to discover that Apocryphal Throne operates within the doom and post-metal scene. This also brought me to discover that Chase Dobson, the orchestrator behind one of my favorite projects from the past few years Cellar Graves, was the mastermind behind Apocryphal Throne. Either way, the mystical essence felt throughout the song was a blast to get through with guitars serving as fresh noise walls. Ecstasphere's amazing vocals gave the song further charm and made it feel complete.

The next song I would like to point your attention to is 'The Register'. This one features Corlyx, the duo of Caitlin Stokes and Brandon Ashley who like to flex their dark pop and electro muscles. Though it can probably be said that Corlyx's sound is normally a bit more upbeat than what is found on "Swarm of Voices" their imagery and lyrical content is anything but. Thus, Stokes' vocals as she sings on 'The Register' finds her channeling a slower and deeper vocal range mixed with higher noted evenly paced muses. It could probably be said that this song finds itself a bit on the minimal side in comparison to a lot of the aural-attacks present on the album. Slow beats echo in the background as do Stokes' voice, and a generally unnerving, cut, and chopped beat proceeds cautiously throughout the song. This is a song that is a slow burn but is worth the entire ride.

"Swarm of Voices" is probably on of the best international collaborations I have heard in a long while. Maybe it is just me, but when I hear collaboration albums I feel as if there is too much going on and that a general theme is unapproachable. Everyone wants their say in the album and wants to stand out. I suppose the same could be said with "Swarm of Voices" as everyone does stand out but the similarity in genres, expertise, and general love for dark sounding electronics and synthesizer made "Swarm of Voices" work. A huge congratulations is deserved to each and every single artist that put their time and effort into this album. This has been one of the best audio pleasures I've had the time to sit through over and over again throughout 2019, and I can easily see it hitting our annual "Albums of the Year" list come next January. 
May 08 2019