“She is patient, for I have eaten at her hearth.”
Bands in the sphere of heavy and alternative music are oddly hesitant to put out truly dynamic records. I do not mean they aren’t breaking out an acoustic guitar once in a while – I want to feel like I’m getting my five-a-day through my ears. There should be moments both maximal and minimal, and artists should be free to change genre between every song if that’s what is needed to tell their tale. Such an approach is not quite a lost art, just under-utilised. Perhaps artists believe they have so little time to prove their relevance to listeners in the current age, leaving little room to leave the box. Recent ‘smorgasbords’ indicate it can be done: Ethel Cain, Blood Incantation, Deafheaven, Liturgy and Full of Hell & Nothing have all put out albums that strained the meaning of a ‘band’. It’s no mistake that these examples are all established artists who can make the jump as their listeners are willing to hear them going rampant in a studio. It follows that such a record is even harder for a debut artist to pull off. Enter ameokama, the solo project of Aki McCullough, ex-Dreamwell and engineer at Nu House Studios, whose first ever solo effort is a dizzying mix of genres and intensities. This is a challenging record of unapologetic ambition, and it’s all the better for it.
It’s difficult to approach i will be clouds in the morning and rain in the evening in any way except from start to finish. As its genre shifts from track to track, coherence is maintained through a consistent production style that is full of character. The sound invokes the busy chaos found only in weird metal classics like Thy Catafalque’s Róka Hasa Rádió and Sigh’s In Somniphobia Ved. Each track incorporates the key sonic themes of the next, easing us through many stylistic changes. Lyrically, it is deeply personal to McCullough, exposing both her pride and vulnerabilities, interrogating how they connect, and brandishing them as a doubled-edged sword.
“my fears have become fetishes” begins the record at it’s most uncomfortable. It’s a metal track structured in a familiar way, ransacked by shimmering chromatic lines and seething synths. McCullough sings “make you scream like a cissy”, deliberately embracing their tone to contrast the incredibly heavy guitars. “phantom cock” carries this sexual tension into deranged techno world – if HEALTH made good on all of the transfemme humour in their marketing memes, they would sound like this. Regardless of your familiarity with McCullough’s previous projects, these openers will act as a filter for the record, and likely prove to be its most divisive.
Track three onwards aligns with what followers of ameokama’s music might expect, but there are plenty of surprises still to come. “i am driving a car with a cute girl and pretending that the world isn’t ending” was the record’s first single, a shoegaze track with biting rhythms and a dramatic bridge that unleashes McCullough’s screams. As “this isn’t love” rings out over danceable grooves and realms of reverb, it’s strikingly pretty yet wreathed in melancholy. “ravensong” is a genuine acoustic track, providing necessary reprieve before “izanami”, the record’s centrepiece; not the storm’s eye, but a dizzying labyrinth of avant garde metal. Chromatic riffs, dissonant chords and wizzing synths wind around McCullough as the she free-falls deeper and deeper into hell.
The balm to “izanami” is “copernicus”, a cover from The Mars Volta’s Octahedron. The original is a disconcerting acoustic piece enriched by electronic elements, and ameokama’s take preserves all of that with extra trimmings. Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s voice is a challenge for anyone to emulate, but McCullough’s voice is so full of mystique and character that it finds alignment; the result is unnervingly pretty. The choice of cover gives listeners a clear indication of ameokama’s ambition, as The Mars Volta are the figureheads of ambitious studio works.
The final three tracks have only more oddities to offer but contain some of the album’s most compelling moments. “copernicus” develops a layer of chittering noise towards its end, paving the way for “cluster B” to completely dedicate itself to noise for its seven minute runtime. It’s clearly a cathartic exercise with deep personal meaning to McCullough as occasional vocal inflections peer through the barbed soundscape. It doesn’t hit Merzbow-levels of all-out sonic warfare thanks to its many layers, especially the deep drones which are rounded and surprisingly welcoming. “cluster B” resolves into a very short doom segment in the final minute, wordless yet somehow willing that the discomfort has passed.
“i will be clouds in the morning and the rain in the evening” is the record’s final conventional song, taking us into one last microgenre. The doomgaze piece swells with electronic bass and trem-picked guitars, cresting with a heavenly dual-vocal segment full of heartbreak. If the next ameokama release dials back the variety, this is the avenue I’d most like explored. The track drifts out on piano arpeggios, once again finding perfect transition into the next and final track. “gila river” is an atmospheric track led fully by piano – McCullough’s playing embraces free time, with each flurry of notes feeling deeply human. Much like “cluster B”, the piano is embellished with a multitude of gritty textures and drones, rising and falling to match the intensity of the notes. But the effect of the track is soothing instead of scathing, and the last moments of the record finally find some modicum of tranquillity. There’s particular value in the scale of these fully ambient pieces, and finding them to be as engrossing as the busy tracks is a delight.
I expect many listeners will balk at the colossal range of sounds that i will be clouds in the morning and rain in the evening visits in its runtime. The stark contrast of the immediate electronics of the early tracks next to the atmospheric indulgence of the final three is a width that few artists could risk. In the abstract, a record that asks listeners to appreciate every moment, no matter how different they are from one another, is an essential challenge that all should take on. In practice, I’ve only been more compelled by the range of ameokama’s debut, and the execution of all of these sounds is both powerful and unique.
8/10
i will be clouds in the morning and rain in the evening releases through audsounds on the 7th February and can be pre-ordered here.