The Rest Of Hiroshima
1. Opening The Womb Of Enola Gay (Lullaby For The Empire Of Rising Sun)
2. Eternity Of An Instance
3. New Sun Is Setting Over The World
Wargasm 911. The Best Of USA
1. Wargasm 911
2. Flights Grounded
3. 168:1

Music shine a light. Shine a light on me. A worthy sentiment somewhat ruined by the fact that most music vomited out today couldn’t power a five watt light bulb. Cutting through this eternal darkness with the power of a lighthouse, blazing with the power and intensity of a thousand suns, comes this release from Velehentor. "Boeing: There And Back Again" (great pun) comprises of three separate acts dedicated to the memory of the Hiroshima victims in 1945, Oklahoma city bombing of 1995 and the 9-11 attacks of 2001.

The first three tracks, ‘Opening the Womb of Enola Gay’, ‘Eternity of an Instance’ and ‘New Sun is setting over the World’ deal with Hiroshima and the shock and awe tactics employed by the good old US-of-fucking-A to end the war in the far East with Japan. Frazzle a few hundred thousand people into micro dust and even the best resolve to fight on will eventually wilt. Track one musically sounds like very early Frontline Assembly (ish) which explains the subtitle ‘Lullaby for the Empire of the Rising Sun’. Very upbeat in tempo with that early electro Industrial vibe, drum machine thumps and synthesisers laying down the melody, before the shit hits the fan on track two. This 10+ minute opus is a gradual build up of the most desolate and anguished ambient so befitting its subject matter. The electronics are drawn out slowly into eternal drones whilst the ghosts of the dead hover whispering in the background competing against the sounds of collapsing buildings. Recovering from this aftermath the third track strikes with a hard paced beat with bells tolling and the synthesisers in overdrive spelling out the hopes for a new dawn. A suitable and climatic end to three well paced and thought out pieces of music.

Moving onto 9-11, when awe and shock finally came home to roost, ‘Wargasm 9-11’ kicks off proceedings with a power electronics dirge of gigantean proportions. Here the music is initially frantic in its delivery, pounding patterns of noise and beats, before the sounds of aircraft flying and radio samples brings a slowdown then recommencement of proceedings with additional samples thrown in. Track five, ‘Flights Grounded’ is even more extreme with the power electronics hitting an intense searing high with some nice static touches working alongside the samples. The last track, ‘168:1’, is not only for the victims of the Oklahoma city bombing but to that great stooge, Timothy James McVeigh, who was executed for carrying out this atrocity. Believe what you will, and the Internet is full of dumb ass conspiracy theories, but 168 people died that day and eventually one poor misguided fool. The music is very toned down compared to the latter tracks with just a simple drum pattern over restrained electronics and samples.

The whole recording, housed in the excellent DVD packaging complete with booklet and postcards, is an ambitious and beautifully realised piece of work. The sum of the different parts are totally cohesive whether played separately or together and is quite remarkable overall. Whether you’re a fan of power electronics or of uncompromising music with its heart firmly attached to its sleeve then "Boeing: There And Back Again" is for you. Pretty fucking amazing overall.

ANM