Earlier this year Oliver Ho (aka Broken English Club, Raudive or Zov Zov) announced the launch of the label Death & Leisure, with a first release coming from his alias Broken English Club. We now have the second release titled, The Sacred Pornography of God, which is a mini album by Zov Zov, a collaborative project between Oliver Ho and Tommy Gillard.
The record brings together elements of the sacred and the profane, a duality which perfectly complements the noise and minimal industrial infused sounds that Oliver Ho and Tommy Gillard are exploring with this release. Revolving around innocence and sin, body and spirit, dominance and submission, the whole aesthetic of the album builds a ritualistic atmosphere where the body becomes a vessel which needs to be purified through music.
All 6 tracks seem to be pieces of a puzzle which at the end come together as a rite of passage through life - starting with birth, followed by baptism and ending with the decaying of one’s body and imminent death. Similar to that eternal return which forces time to lose its linearity and become cyclical.
The album starts with harsh and abrasive distortions on "Spill", the perfect embodiment of those first moments after being born, when the newborn has to face, for the first time, the confusing reality of the world around us. Throughout the entire album, the body has a strong presence, either through the names of the tracks or through the intense breathings, hissings and pants on "Blood in Blood" or the chants on "Your Body is a Parasite". Each song sounds like it's supposed to accompany a ritual that the listener needs to go through in order to test his own limits. While known for their penchant for EBM and techno or even more dance floor oriented releases, this time Oliver and Tommy are taking us by surprise with electro-acoustic experimentations and cavernous, droney, almost cacophonous compositions, intertwined with tibetan incantations.
The Sacred Pornography of God comes with cover artwork by British Photographer Javier Gallego, which resembles a totem or a sacred object used by indigenous people in various rituals, which only adds another layer of mysticism to the whole release. Whether Zov Zov are supposed to be the ones performing the ceremonies or just the mediators, this mini album manages to create a spiritual universe where music is more than just a tool to create a certain atmosphere, but rather a means to abolish the mind vs body dichotomy.
Available now in 12" format. For more information please visit Facebook and Soundcloud. For purchasing visit Juno.
-Marie Bungau
@mariebungau