Neptunian Maximalism - Set Chaos to the Heart of the Moon (2022)^{Release ID: 37089}

Set Chaos to the Heart of the Moon is the Roadburn set performed by the Belgian psych/drone/jazz collective on 17th April 2021. Starting off with Sustain, I guess you had to be there to appreciate the track as it is a bit of a nothingness really, it's random and disparate vocalisations don't do much for me in this recorded form and does very little to build any anticipation for the hour plus that is to follow, although I can see how it may be considerably more effective (and possibly disturbing) in a live setting. Those opening eight and a half minutes are followed by Zâr: Empowering the Phurba: Éon Phanérozoïque which is where the bass and percussion introduce themselves as the driving force behind the piece with the rest of the band doing all their "twiddly bits" over the top of this propulsive force which seems to gain monentum and power as the track proceeds.

The five-part, twenty-seven minute suite, Vajrabhairava is up next, starting with it's heavily eastern-influenced, shamanic atmosphere it is the most interesting part of the set for me and marks the point, quarter of an hour in, where the album finally gets going properly. The psychedelic jazz presented during Vajrabhairava is very hypnotic, in particular The Great Wars of Quaternary Era Against Ego, which comes off like a jazz version of a Hawkwind jam from their seminal Space Ritual live album and I have found myself zoning out more than once whilst listening to it, thoughts off and away elsewhere, pondering the nature of time, space and reality, such is the effect of this sonic mindwipe on my neural pathways! The final twenty-plus minutes are dedicated to another lengthy suite, the three parter, The Conference of the Stars which once more has at it's centrepiece, after a sax-led crawling first movement, a glorious jazzy space-rock jam that is dynamic and propulsive, as if hurtling between astronomical bodies on a tail of fire, which marks another high point of the album for me. The performance sounds impeccable, and it is evident that NM are consummate musicians who are technically excellent and who gel together impressively in a live environment.

Overall, this is an album that gets off to a slow start and begins to test my patience early on, but which redeems itself with some quite sublime, psychedelic-laced musical adventures to places few others dare to tread. I get a similar sensation from this as from another Roadburn set, Waste of Space Orchestra's Syntheosis, which isn't musically the same, but is certainly spiritually so. For all the plaudits for the droning avant-jazz, it is the kineticism of The Great Wars of Quaternary Era Against Ego and The Conference of the Stars Part Two: the Ascension that really grabs me, their dynamism providing more focus and direction than the sometimes (to me) aimlessness of the most avant-jazz sections. I can imagine this was a brilliant live experience and I am sure that a Neptunian Maximalism performance is indeed something to behold, with the recorded version probably lacking a bit of the x-factor you sometimes get with the best live acts. When it is good, it is absolutely superb, but there are a couple of sections I could do without if I am being honest (as in the first fifteen minutes) and so I can't award it my very highest scores.

When this album begins with nearly eight and a half minutes of avant-garde choral chanting, you can expect some of the thing that you are going to get from Set Chaos to the Heart of the Moon. That transforms "Zâr" and then the three part "Vajrabhairava", which exemplifies all the reasons why Neptunian Maximalism are making some of the best drone music in modern times. This group is using the "drone" as their fundamental so that they can experiment/wank over the very simple ostinato found in the bass and sometimes in one of the stringed instruments as well. Saxophone and guitars galore performing in an unusual manner, while the chanting from the intro serves as complimentary material. The performance does not have a clear direction for melody per se, but the well established fundamental rhythm section before everything else kicks in gives each movement a sense of forward momentum and growth, which is quite the accomplishment for a genre that is notorious for having very little, if not any, momentum or growth (kind of implied in the name of the genre).

While I do enjoy "Ol sonuf vaoresaji ! La Sixième Extinction de Masse", it does not leave me with a lot to talk about. The two part "The Conference of the Stars" is far more interesting. Part one starts off simple enough, but about halfway through, the entire ensemble drops out allowing for a unaccompanied Soprano saxophone, with an octave filter, to take the lead. This was surprising since that droning fundamental bass line has been present throughout the entire performance up to this point; for it to disappear for as long as it does is shocking, and only exemplifies the crushing fundamental again when it returns. It's well placed and a much needed attention seeker, even for those more attuned to drone music than myself. Part two is a little less enjoyable. While certainly interesting as the rhythm section opts for a faster groove that is more closely aligned with post-metal, the chanting drops out as the guitar/saxophone duo trade over a single, slowly rising bass note. It's an interesting concept that saved by being the final "real" song of the set, but would likely fall flat as the final track of a studio album.

Neptunian Maximalism is a group meant to be experienced as a live performance rather than as a studio album. As such, this review is a little bit different than others. I rather enjoyed this new record from the band, and probably more so than 2020's Éons. That album was held back by it's length whereas this takes half of the time. This is a record that should be enjoyed as a complete performance instead of as subsequent parts. If that's for you, then Set Chaos to the Heart of the Moon is one of the best drone albums I've heard in a long time.

Best Songs: Zâr, Vajrabhairava (Parts I & II), The Conference of the Stars (Part One: Cleopatra the Goddess)