I love The Lotus Eaters. Not many people know the surprisingly laid back side project of Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, House of Low Culture), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0))), Khanate, and a myriad of others), and James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher, Khlyst, etc); this may be due to the fact that the group does not release records at the clip that some of their other projects do. Wurmwluv is, after all, only the group's fourth release since the three individuals began collaborating since 1999 (this includes the Alienist on a Pale Horse LP, the Mind Control for Infants LP, and the untitled 7"). Wurmwluv does see them traversing some of the same subtle sonic territory that The Lotus Eaters have made their domain on these past releases, which is a very good thing, because the band does create a mood that is vastly different than most of their other individual projects.
The three untitled pieces on this album are very long and can make listening to them a dubious undertaking if one is not prepared to sit for a while (this is not a car listening record by any stretch of the imagination and should come with a sleep warning so people do not attempt it), which I cleared off enough to sit and actually give this record the appropriate attention. The first piece on the Wurmwluv is even more of an atmospheric track (and lengthy one at just under a half of an hour) than I have come to expect from this troupe; there are squealing noises and different types of percussive sounds going on all over the place, and I use place specifically because all of the sound and tone has a recognizably spatial quality. The piece lacks much of the traditional verse chorus verse structure of "pop" or "rock" songs and moves along at a pace that seems to not account for time whatsoever; The Lotus Eaters seem more intent on exploring the space that their sound inhabits rather that the time element and in doing so are not trapped into normal chronological passing in the track. After listening to this composition several times, I am even more intrigued as to the motivation behind the construction of their work (this piece in particular reminds me of the soundtrack work of Gyögy Sándor Ligeti, who contributed to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, andEyes Wide Shut.
The second piece stands in sharp contrast to that of the first on Wurmwluv with its relative brevity and its understated percussive element. It does, however, relate to the first with its play in spatial sound; at first piece number two seems to take up little space and then there are surges of sound that seem to engulf the space given to the sound until eventually the sound not only engulfs the space but also seems to burst its boundaries and volume levels. The third untitled track is a little more than half the length of the first at just over fifteen minutes, and it also has the most alien qualities than the other two pieces that comprise Wurmwluv; the spatial play is still evident, but the track also adds these strange call and response "voices." Alien is definitely a good word to use to describe the whole of the third piece of this eclectic collection.
The packaging for Wurmwluv is excellent. Stephen Kasner (you may know his work from Integrity's Seasons in the Size of Daysalbum) supplies the artwork. The packaging is a DVD type setup up that resembles CD digipacks. There is little in the way of liner notes which allows for a very artistic presentation overall.
The Lotus Eaters continue to surprise me with their releases and Wurmwluv is the most bizarre yet; this also is their most inaccessible (from a traditional "rock" or "pop" viewpoint) record to date. I would not quite put this release into a field recording category, but that would not be far off the mark. Due to its affinity (at times) to previous soundtrack type work, I would say that The Lotus Eaters have a future in that line of work. Most people who are familiar with their work in the past may (or may not) be ready for the compositions that make up Wurmwluv, but then again, expectations for records are almost always as bad as assumptions. Being that this release is so difficult to wrap one's head around, it could not be rated in the same way that most music is; so, I will not rate this at all. If individuals are interested in hearing this, do so with an open mind and you may find a record that is challenging and worthwhile to spend a precious commodity on, time.
Rating (to demonstrate the ridiculous supposition of doing this): ax^2+bx+c=0
