Adventurous listeners may already be familiar with Ektro records, the label (alongside Hydra Head) responsible for Zero, the upcoming album by Pharaoh Overlord. Those persons may already have some idea of the weirdness that waits for them on “Meanwhile”, streaming below.
For the uninitiated: Ektro specializes in bizarre extreme dispatches, especially those from prolific Finnish psychedelic outfit Circle. That outfit seems to put out a new record as often as possible (some of them are quite excellent—last year’s Terminal is an above-average example of their output).
Circle shares some members with Pharaoh Overlord but on Zero the band brought a pair of notable friends with them. Faust’s Hans Joachim Irmler and Demilich’s Antti Boman join the fray this time. Boman’s singular croaking gives Zero a bizarre, otherworldly edge, as displayed on “Meanwhile”. Don’t let the almost chiptune intro fool you: Pharoah Overlord are out to open esoteric gateways, not download SNES emulators. The remainder of the record is simlarly bizarre, though like “Meanwhile” it won’t show its true colors until multiple listens.
Follow Pharoah Overlord via Ektro’s Facebook page.
