IAH
IAH – released January 20, 2017
Necio Records – CD // Kozmik Artifactz – Vinyl // DD
Album Reviewed by Ric “Suisyko” Dorr
Location – Córdoba, Argentina
Band Members – Bass: Juan Pablo Lucco Borlera (Orighen) // Drums: José Landin (S.A.D.E. – Fahrenheit – It Will Be the End) //
Guitar: Mauricio Condon (Pieles)
This first offering from IAH, a three piece outfit brought together, each with a pedigree of previous bands, and they have created something that shines bright from first note to last. Four tracks of instrumental bliss that the band has tagged as a combination of ambient/post-rock/stoner/metal siphoned through an experimental filter. An intriguing descriptor for sure and these are 25 minutes of some of the most coherent meanderings yet to throw those tags together.
Opening track ‘Cabalgan Los Cielos’ (Ride The Skies) has an almost-hidden fade in the beginning three seconds before the band enters with a nice even paced walk of resonating clear notes carried by a lumbering-thick bass line and a cadence from the drum-kit that fits perfectly. By the time the first power chord rings out at 1:40, you are already hooked for the ride and the smile that creeps across your face is one of sonic satiation. The spaced out flow for the duration is seamless from clear notes to distorted screams and back again as you can feel the twists and turns through the atmospheric coursing painted.
The last section shows that they can get as fast and hammering as the next, and are not afraid to do it to the fullest extent possible and then shifting back to that doom-heavy slowness and over-modulated purity of power, a slow-fading digital echo taking us into ‘Ouroboros’ with an almost spaghetti-western tone and progression. Taps of cymbal ringing softly until another hit of snare and we’re off for the next round of instrumental hypnosis that has as many twists and turns and fills that feed off of each time shift effortlessly punctuating that this band as a unit are exactly the same page and give the same 200% lacking with too many.
‘Stolas’ (Clothing) has a nice jazz-tempo beginning, those clear notes with a slight reverb edge tickle your ears as the time signature makes your fingers tap along involuntarily as the sing-song/stop and go tempo becomes your pulse as you move right along with every note, each speaking every word, never said but still heard. Each member is as solid as stone and flex and flow perfectly, never dropping a second and still maintaining that ‘live-in-the-studio’ feel that lets IAH deliver the goods. Closer ‘Eclipsum’ hits hard and heavy, thick and heavy from the first second and shows even MORE of the syncopational unity these three represent.
This EP had been released in January 2017 and there are two extra tracks available via the band’s bandcamp page. ‘La piedra que sujeta el sol’ (The Stone That Holds The Sun) that listens as the perfect “next song” after the end of ‘Eclipsum’ and is even MORE raw and ‘live’ sounding giving a majesty to their soundscape and when ‘Nuboj’ begins with those harmonic muted tones ringing out followed by the clarity of that sound of brand-new strings permeates the air, you can almost smell the difference and the next seven plus minutes wrap the entire take together with the ultimate mix of heavy and harmonic. Get ALL six of these songs in your library the very second you find them and share out to each person you come in contact with as they NEED to hear this as badly as you do even now and support them live if you get the chance… keep it LOUD!!
