Earth Divided By Zero Review Round Up

http://maelstrom.nu/ezine/review_iss70_5564.php

http://toeleven.net/2010/06/22/review-combat-astronomy-earth-divided-by-zero/

Tarkus Magazine review (Richard A Toftesund). Kindly translated by the editors there. This is a Norwegian print magazine of progressive music.

With the second album "Dreams No Longer Hesitate", the multi-instrumentalist James Huggett and his unit Combat Astronomy made a certain impression in the European counter-rock environment last year. Here, he presented an insidious and strong formula relating to the 70's Zeuhl, 80's noise, 90's doom and present time minimalist drones, mixed with free jazz of the renowned saxophonist/clarinetist Martin Archer, all topped by the confident but otherwise human voice of Elaine DiFalco from indie group Caveman Shoestore.

Secondly, Huggett appeared with his project at the RIO festival in Carmeaux to lackluster response from a trained and blase avant-garde audience who was not at all impressed by unproportioned walls of sound, the absence of chemistry between the musicians and something ominously reminiscent of amateurish appearance. Even among those who been impressed by the album, there was the tendency to write off Huggett from here, something which makes Earth Divided by Zero a critical point in his musical development. The album then also is a continuation through strenghtening and perfecting specific aspects of the band's established sound.

And it all turns out to work - moreover it exceededs all expectations. From the wordless singing and into in the bass/drums/Hammond introduction of the grim opening cut ÇAstralizedÈ, via bent poly-rhythms under coarse fuzz strings and strangely well-sounding vocal phrasing in "Parallax of One Arc Second", to the monumental three-part title track, where extreme sonic considerations develop into a chaos contract between instruments and the impulses that influence. Huggett can hardly be accused of being special delicate, he reduces almost all sound matter into an essence that he funnels the music through (a bit like Guapo, Tarantula Hawk and Yeti before him, even though none of them sounded quite like this), and the continuous components - grinding and crushing bottom drive under odd rhythm coordinates, furious free solos on top, sudden quiet breaks over equally monomanic theme motives - are not wavering an inch on this disc.

Consequently, chances are that Combat Astronomy are just as happy to confirm the prejudices against them, but I personally would like to commend Huggett for keeping such a rare vision. Very few, if any, are making music like Combat Astronomy today.
---

Brad at CD Baby
The band calls its music an "intense hypnagogic industrial/jazz/prog/doommetal hybrid," and while that's certainly accurate, when it comes to unapologetically intense compositions like these, it's best to simply forget the labels and just let the music do the talking. If you're the kind of person who can appreciate a band that's gutsy enough to kick off their record with a six-minute track that starts off with echo-y chants and evolves into rattling bass riffs that you'll feel through the bottom of your feet, this is your kind of music. And if your kind of music is the kind that follows no template, is happy to either delicately flick your ear or bludgeon you through the skull, and thinks that mixing free jazz and doom metal makes perfect sense, than why aren't you listening to this band? Because, seriously, even if you're the kind of person who's sick of everything, you'll want to hear this. You haven't heard anything like it. And you may not ever again.
---

http://www.unprogged.com/showthread.php?t=5712
Google-fish translation below. Butchers the Italian language but you get the jist.

'Fun every now and then read the influences that allow groups to be in the composition of their songs. In the case of American Combat Astronomy the list is surprising to say the least:

Magma, Meshuggah, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Hawkwind, Godflesh, Sunn O))), Soft Machine. Kate Bush, God, Black Sabbath, Can, Amon Duul and many more.
Magma? Meshuggah? Sunn O)))? Soft Machine? Miles Davis? Kate Bush?? How can they live together with the founders of the most violent zeuhl tech-deather the globe? How can the extreme noise of Sunn O))) to find his way if approached jazz rock? How can harmonize with Godflesh's Hawkwind?

We start from a distance, the draft Combat Astronomy was founded in 1998 by the mind of James Huggett, fond of industrial, electronics and noise. Are added as the line-up Martin Archer, Elaine di Falco, Mick Beck and Mike Ward and the proposal begins to take shape disturbing. After three albums released over eight years, here is the latest work: excessive, redundant, unsettling, psychologically as never before.
The mixture we anticipated: experimentation in the wild, rock in opposition to the rock in opposition, as the zeuhl is raped by a blood Huggett of distorted guitars and rhythmic dance unsafe battery alienating clarinets.

Astralized playing with the compass of genres, starting with an Arabic vocalism to flow into a regurgitation doom / avant metal embellished by an unexpected Hammond, the restless and dissonant piano One of Parallax Arc Second opened a track in which the avant-garde underground telluric polyrhythms destabilize the listener, noise, industrial, double-core following in Eating Backwards, an extreme version of the proposal of miRthkon, again, the tripartite title track, there propina cocktail so far (poorly) absorbed in a relentless succession of cyclones metal, delusions ethnic (in the second part of the song), space-doom storms devastated by the usual flourishes of the saxophone, borrowed from avant-jazz rock tradition, the eternal 14 minutes of The Atrocity Commission: as the title, atrocious Mescid between ambient, electronic , jazz and metal twisted, coats, inaugurated by a robotic, futuristic riffs, here's International Parachute, anaphoric trace harassing, built on a strong bass guitar and backbeat.

Divided by Zero Earth disturbs the listener, drags him into a contaminated area, where musical genres are devouring each other, resulting in a massacre of melody and rhythm. The record is of course forbidden to euphony lovers, for what concerns garde lovers ... well, could you give us a little thought, especially those who appreciate certain works of Kajo Dot, and Zu miRthkon. The album in two words? Excessive, but brave.
See you soon, dear Combat Astronomy (in a few years, however, after we made a pear of Spock's Beard)!

Flak Planet

Still in progress... its always that last 10% that seems to take the longest.

All albums now at Band Camp

http://combat-astronomy.bandcamp.com/

Nearly all the albums up, including Lunik (long out of print) and Luniks successor 'Solar Radiation' which never got released.

I'll prob stick up some of the even older harsh noise stuff at some point.

Out of print albums are free/donation downloads. As the others go out of print I'll make these free as well.

Combat Astronomy sound cloud account

http://soundcloud.com/combat-astronomy
Some tracks up from Earth Divided By Zero

Earth Divided By Zero released

Streaming samples available at CDbaby
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/combatastronomy3
Also available at Aquarius Records,
http://www.aquariusrecords.org/

and shortly at
http://www.waysidemusic.com
http://www.crucialblast.net/

Combat Astronomy's third ensemble release opens with a long haunting human call that seems to come out across a desert at night: echoing and morphing into the strange off kilter ritual of 'Astralized', a looping miasma of dubbed out horns, dervish incantations and ostinato grinding bass. This hypnagogic atmosphere continues throughout the disc, an eerie otherworldly aspect and restless energy that often threatens to collapse the rigid grasp the nuanced drums and de-tuned tectonic bass have over the poly-rhythmic structures. The lyrical narratives of its predecessor "Dreams No Longer Hesitate" are gone, and when di Falcos vocals do merge are either indecipherable or phonetic: sometimes little more than primal screams, at other times layered choruses. A continuous dense wall of shifting sound, Combat Astronomy show possibly their highest level of stylistic purity so far – the sense 'otherworldly yet familiar' experience more akin to the primal landscapes of Zoviet France than the typical library references of extreme metal or free jazz. Like Tarkovsky's films, the music seems to communicate primarily with ones unconscious mind regardless of whether the conscious one is enthralled or repulsed. Huggett and Archers mastery of meditative stillness within an onslaught of movement reaches a pinnacle here - wailing horn textures and vapor trail drones soar over subterranean doom metal riffs: the musical architecture undergoing a permanent, pulsating alternation of creation and dissolution.

Earth Divided By Zero at the pressing plant

Earth Divided By Zero is being pressed so should be available soon.

Flak planet is making good progress, Martin and company have completed all their parts: lots of horns on this one and once again, its got its own sound so should have that out later in the year.

Despite the modern 'extreme metal' attack of the rhythm section theres quite an uplifting 70's feel.

I hate waiting 3 years between albums.

I'm also writing songs with much more prominent guitar while still having the bass way up front.

Mix wise this has challenges but I've solved some of the basic compositional/arrangement issues I've generally had - this involved a type of counterpoint rather than closely following each other (which is pretty much the approach in nearly all metal - or the bass just does a pedal).

Devin Townsend, Cloudkicker, Slate Drums

Ziltoid and Ki are brilliant albums I should have investigated his solo stuff years ago!

I've also been listening to Cloud Kicker a lot as well --- excellent stuff - this guy deserves much more recognition.

I upgraded my drum library to Steven Slate drums which are killer - I researched several libraries and Slates won hands down - very rich and warm (and the EX version is cheap). The kicks in particular are excellent. The anti machine gun feature is a godsend as well. Many library developers seem to forget that its having convincing alternating hits at the same velocity level that is the key to realism, rather than 20 hits of different velocities.

Subwoofer

My current studio monitors are Tannoy System 800's (passive). I drive them with the power section of a Kenwood Ka-8100 (top flight amp from the early 80's I got for free years ago - they don't make them like that anymore).

The Tannoys are extremely clean and accurate speakers. The manual warns its easy to turn them up loud without noticing it (due to their very low distortion figures) and indeed this is true. My mixes often sound better on other systems than these units because they are brutally honest and quite 'unexciting' or reserved - however, vocals and sweet detailed sounds when well recorded blossom in front of you.

So guess I'm a Tannoy fan!

However, they do tend to barf with large amounts of low frequency material so I set about sorting out a sub for them. I got a 10 inch Dayton Audio reference series sub driver from parts express and set it up in a bass guitar cab I had lying around, hooked up to a Yorkville 2000watt audio pro power amp and a dbx crossover. The dayton sadly did not fill expectations - though it handled the formidable output of the yorkville it was not capable of clean bass even a moderate levels - there was very audible distortion. I'd estimate one would need 3 or 4 of these 10inch speakers to achieve clean output at say 100db.

So I sent that back and just hooked up an 18inch carvin PA sub I use in my bass rig - a world of difference. Clean deep effortless lowend. I was expecting the opposite situation. One might think that PA gear is 'lowfi' or not appropriate for a hifi reproduction situation but this is just not the case. Big speakers (at least with direct radiator designs) and powerful amps are the key to good low end even at 'normal' listening levels - I'd noticed even at quiet settings my bass rig always sounded much more authoritative than any hifi at the same volume level. I'll get an RTA mic at some point at calibrate the whole setup properly. Standing waves are always a problem but it should be possible to EQ out the dips in the lower octaves at the mix position.

Flak Planet

Earth Divided By Zero is off to the pressing plant soon!

Before christmas I wrote a new album currently called 'Flak Planet' over about a week in one of my obbsessive creative spurts - at least, all the bass and drum parts. Martin has written and tracked material for these songs, and will be having a session at some point with a larger horn ensemble.

I've employed a more stripped down approach arrangment wise - though this has meant the bass riffage is probably now rivalling Meshuggah in terms of time signature complexity as it is carrying much more of the melodic aspects of the song form: as well as the thundering rhythmic underpinnings. There will some really rich horn work - this will be a very distinctive album and I hope to get it turned around quickly.

'Symmetry though Collapse' is still in the conceptual stage. I have some songs in the wings for that one but the overall 'sense' of that album has not arrived yet. I hope to get Elaine working on material for that one as well as Martin. I'm considering a vinyl release maybe with free downloads.