RSS Boys – N00W and their tribal shamanism
Published February, 2014
by Easterndaze
Very tribal. Those two words resonated through my head as I put on the latest RSS B0YS release and rhythms started to emanate in my room. This mysterious Polish duo with strong bonds to the label Mik.Musik.!. have landed their latest release NOOW on the cassette imprint Sangoplasmo.
From the very beginning of this release, the listener is transported into an uncompromising frenzy. Forget introduction or preparation. Africa is on fire, heavy drums are pounding straight from the very start, a primitive but very physical sound starts to slowly evolve into hypnotizing repetition of tribal fury filled with hazy, distant oriental auralism slowly entering into long lasting jam of the instruments.
The drum is the key and center of everything. No time to rest, beat keeps going all the time with sudden breaks and new themes entering, putting more tension and ending in a grande finale of viciousness. Side two is more relaxed and dubby with a noisy and distorted ambience filled with deep bass drum escalating into sow house groove and intense build ups and ends silently with reverbed pads. It is a noisy, but still airy nightride jam.
There is a mysterious question mark floating above the project and their tumblr page filled with pictures of oriental women in veils, masks of the ancient tribes or steampunk devices only add to this mystique. This is war without the modern weapons, pure crystallized animal fury which could set every club on fire, while still keeping a decent and sophisticated face despite it’s heavy and distorted moments.
One of their rare live acts happened on Unsound festival which banned photographs and thus only a couple of hand drawn pictures exists from their show. They dressed up in masks which resembled a cross between a burka and a bee mask. Willing to give up the indentity for the sake of the concept may not work that fully all the time, but this is not the case of the RSS B0YS, their final statement on this release is complete work of art.
By B.Arctor