Mensimonis - Clone Fever [Opa Loka Records]

Released only recently via Opa Loka Records is "Clone Fever", the first ever longplay effort put on the circuit by Mensimonis, a collaborational project by experimental musicians Radboud Mens and Lukas Simonis who ended up improvising together when they were doing recording and improv workshops for secondary schools a few years ago - a well obscure starting point for a joint venture but sometimes things take off from the weirdest occasions. With four tracks whose titles are as epicly long as their playtimes between 15 and 22 minutes the pair of producers brings us their very own vision of conjunctional experimentalism, following the simple rule of Mr. Radboud Mens taking care of all the sub stuff whilst Lukas Simonis takes over the higher frequencies, mostly based on looped guitars and their evolution as well as manipulation. This said, we see the first track "The Individual Is Handicapped By Coming Face-To-Face With A Conspiracy So Monstrous He Cannot Believe It Exists" - talking long track titles.... - starting out on slightly off kilter improvisations somewhat in between Post-PostRock and Psychedelia later accompanied by continuous feedback loops and droning, Ambient-resembling structures partly evoking memories of Aosuke's legendary "Monotone Spirit" album released back in 2006. With the conspiracy kindling "Few Believe Me When I Tell Them That The Rulers Of This Planet Are Of Reptilian Bloodlines" opens straight on a psychedelic - and possibly Asia- / India-influenced - tip guitarwise whilst a slowly moving low frequency drone and crackling surface noise provide a steady foundation to what evolves into an array of polyrhythmic layers from a single loop, causing brain functions to tilt as it's slightly impossible to process simultaneity of calming drones and scattered chaotic loops. Furthermore there's "Give The Clone A Soul, God Is Watching Over Your Shoulder", a trip into Guitar-based Ambient meditations slowly drifting into a combination of drones and twisted analogue signals like the ones we were once used to when fax machines and cable modems were still in fashion before taking a turn mid-track and catering all fans of electronic experimentalisms with a maelstrom of dizzying frequency modulations and hypnotic loop repetitions. Finally "All Rumours Being Investigated" weighs in a little bit of a lonely, desperate desert feel throughout its intro sequence which leads into an ever growing aggression and intensity in terms of guitar handling, building up to a point not distinguishing between anger and ultimate madness anymore whilst a wall-of-sound adds an additional, pretty much unsettling momentum to the tunes' overall feel until an unexpected climax reveals a huge feedback orgy of sorts that one would rather expect at the very end of a Psychedelic Rock show. Straight up great, this one is! 

Album artwork on Instagram!