9. Hototogisu - Chimärendämmerung [De Stijl]

Representing the psychedelic infinite, Hototogisu kept on stunning me with subsequential releases this past year. Prayer Rug Exorcism, Some Blood Will Stick, Sculpture Built Upon The Graves and two split releases; Snail On A Razor with Prurient and Volume One with Burning Star Core. And they all were the bone rattling, tunnel vision psych fantasies you've come to expect from a dude like Matthew 'Skullflower' Bower. Together with Double Leopard Marcia Bassett he's made Hototogisu into a venomous psych through noise beast and Chimärendämmerung is the flame that scorched my brain most intensely.

Bower's a mean machine, a man without any commercial underpinnings. He strictly lives for his inner noise and this album is as deep as Bower's belief in that inner noise. In a nutshell, Chimärendämmerung consists out of a top layer of heavily treated guitar sounds twitching and twirling like thousands of insects on wet rain forest floors. Underneath, a psychedelic maze with tons of hidden chambers. You can reach them by closing your eyes while relaxing every muscle in your body, dim the lights and make sure you turn the volume up. Warn neighbours if necessary but Hototogisu isn't Sunn O))), Hototogisu's sound might seep through the crackles in walls, like armies of ants coming up from nowhere but it won't get your windows a shaking like a random Sunn O))) track. If Sunn's the tank, Hototogisu is the sniper on the roof, hitting your dome with an arrow drenched in some exotic poison, causing you to hallucinate before you DIE. Awesome.