Vargr – Aldebaran

August 2, 2009 • 205 Recordings

I haven't been listening to noise much in ages. I was really into it a few years ago, but somewhere around 2010 my interest started to drop and I just haven't bothered with it. (It's likely I overlistened and got tired of it.) Consequently I have a bunch of old noise album that have been sitting around in my library, unrated, for years; Vargr's are some of the oldest and it's finally time I gave Aldebaran its due.

And it's surprisingly a lot better than I remember it being. It's substantially harsh stuff, but doesn't fail to be pretty interesting as well. "Aufbruch nach Aldebaran" opens the album with some nasty wall noise, but there's lots of variation in the timbre and presentation of that noise that makes up for the lack of dynamics. Vargr relies a lot on high-pitched squealing sounds to cut through the thick static, but fortunately the squeals aren't unpleasant.

The length of the tracks (nearly twenty minutes for two of them) used to be a showstopper for me, especially since the amount of variety in those long tracks isn't huge at first listen; however, Aldebaran is one of those albums that manages to justify such monolithic times. It's easy to get wrapped up in the all-encompassing clamor and just kind of zone out; this also makes picking out all the little interesting things going on much easier. There are depths to these tracks that take a bit of digging to find, but they're there.

The shorter track "First Transmission from A" is kind of the opposite—less subtle, more deliberately thrashing your ears with oscillators and grinding distortion. It may be a bit too long for how intense it is, but not to a fault. The closing track is entirely the opposite: a blissful droning piece, quite simple and beautiful.

I'm not sure if Aldebaran really is that good, or if it's just hitting a noise-loving part of my brain that hasn't been satisfied in a while; either way, I'm glad I decided to revisit this album. Definitely a good listen for anyone who likes it harsh.

Brace yourself for the tinnitus, though.

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