Standing in the audience for the Swans show, I watched as a diminutive blonde girl took the stage by herself. This was the opening act? She stood, dressed in black, before a tightly knit collection of pedals, wires and machines. I was expecting something trance induced. Something danceable built on synth-beats and keyboards.
Instead I got sonic devastation. Erupting from these machines, and the diminutive blonde girl before them, was the sound of absolute fury. As her noise hammered the eardrums of the audience, the girl screamed into the microphone as if a thousand spikes were warring to burst from her skull. The name of the act is Pharmakon, the woman behind it is Margaret Chardiet , a staple of the New York City underground scene, who lived in (and helped run) the Red Light House, a punk house in Far Rockaway, New York. Post Hurricane Sandy, Chardiet relocated to Bushwick, Brooklyn, where she runs 538 Johnson, another space for live music and art.
This year, after several CD-R recordings, Chardiet ’s project Pharmakon releases Abandon via Sacred Bones records. Live, Chardiet is an absolute force of nature. She stomps around the stage, volleying between confronting the audience, and then slipping back into her own madness. Alone, with only her multi-octave vocals and hacked together machinery, Chardiet ’s Pharmakon nearly stole the show from Swans. I bought the album, questioning if she could mimic the live fury I just witnessed. She does. She absolutely does. Abandon is wonderful. In the few short days since buying it, Abandon has become a top contender for album of the year.
Most people think the noise genre is easy to execute, which isn’t true. A noise project has to connect to the listener on a personal level, without melody, harmonies, riffs, or any of the standard trappings of a band. When it is done well, as with Pharmakon, the experience is outstanding. The connection is incredibly real, and usually cathartic for both artist and listener.
Abandon is a difficult album to describe. It’s so involved. You commit to this album. You commit to allowing the work to flow over you, and take you away. Chardiet ’s ability to build noisescapes is impressive. She has a great sense of rhythm and timing. Looped drums, looping anything but actual drums, set the foundation to what Chardiet is doing. There’s a John Carpenter vibe to Abandon. The use of droning tones to create tension, peppered with odd sounds that could, arguably, be called catchy, is very much like the soundtracks to Assault On Precinct 13 or The Fog.
Don’t get me wrong, what’s happening on Abandon is very fresh. While the influences may come from bands like Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten, Swans and even a touch of Burzum, Chardiet never allows her music to slip into mimicry. Part of that is how she crafts each passage. “Milkweed/It Hangs Heavy” is primal, an unforgiving slab of brutality. Chardiet screams and wails through the entire session, making it very uncomfortable. “Ache” is cathartic, the sound of emotional poisons, being drained through screams bellowed out over a disturbing manipulation of alarm sounds. “Pitted” has a folk center to it, creating an earthy vibe beneath the drones and crashing percussion. Chardiet ’s voice is staggering on this track, completely mesmerizing.
“Crawling On Bruised Knees” is otherworldly. The beat Chardiet creates, sounds like an inmate slapping a metal cup against the bars inside an asylum. Swirling around this “beat”, is a moving drone, something that circles you, especially if you listen to Abandon with headphones. Chardiet speaks through affected microphones, creating what sounds like another language. When “Crawling On Bruised Knees” ends, be patient. 94 tracks pass, each six seconds of silence. Then the grand opus, simply called “Track 99”, begins a thirty-minute assault. Dark, cold and bitter rule here. Imagine walking through a labyrinth possessed of true evil. “Track 99” could be the soundtrack to your journey.
Pharmakon is all about textures. Chardiet is not just creating noise, she’s layering audio textures together. Abandon is a record that never crumbles under its own weight. Chardiet maintains complete control in both the musical passages, and her vocals. This is not just a great album. Abandon announces the arrival of an important new voice in art and music.
http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/
