SIGILLUM S
ABSTRACTION
ALBUM DAFT RELEASE: OCTOBER 1, 1999 REVIEW: SEPTEMBER 29, 1999

I love noisy music. Be it the guitar feedback on The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy", Einstürzende Neubauten's metal percussion and power drills or EC8OR's Amiga trash. It's all seminal. But what all these artists have in common is that song strucutures always can be found somewhere in the dissonance. Sometimes listening to pure, fierceful noise, without any tunes at all, can also be a thrilling experience - with Atari Teenage Riot sampler player Nic Endo's 1998 "White Heat" EP being one of my favourites of the kind - but mostly it feels like the noise needs to be accompanied by some sort of melodies.
That's why I can't really get a grip on bands like Sigillum S. The Italian duo probably regard themselves as very avant garde and courageous, but the fact is that this kind of music has been made for over two decades, and Sigillum S hardly bring any new blood to the genre. It's all low frequency bass, primitive hisses and "dark" moods. And well, yes, they do have some tunes, but I'd like to see more of them.
Like so many others, they never find the raw sensitivity and brutal beauty of early Throbbing Gristle, or the nerve shattering tension of some Japanese noise artists. And it's really not very brave or provocative making this kind of music these days - I'd be much more impressed if they would have dared throwing in a pop chorus. Then we could have talked about innovation.
Sigillum S have been around since 1985 and I do appreciate their persistance and their anarchic avoidance of structures. I just wish they would lighten up their dead serious attitude and begin to make music that is able to give me other feelings than a slight ache in my temples.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN