The inside sleeve of Hallucination Guillotine/Final Worship's booklet features an eviscerated woman, an unfortunate victim to the now-abolished Chinese practice of leng-chi, or the "death of a thousand cuts." The image is ghastly: spots of severed flesh, leg removed, and slices running down the one attached limb. On the back is a drawing of a lupine humanoid pulling a tall switch seemingly attached to some sort of kiosk retrofit with a retractable razor blade. Dripping liquid, perhaps the spilled blood of its victims, appears on the kiosk's facade. Is this the "Hallucination Guillotine" for which half of this album is named? Is there a connection with the slow, slicing death of a thousand cuts?
Kites is the handle of Providence wunderkind Chris Forgues, who boasts an arsenal of homemade equipment and other "mysterical electronics" to make his music. Split into two parts with five songs apiece, Hallucination Guillotine/Final Worship acts as Kites' third proper full-length. Gone are the Amps For Christ-inspired string arrangements of Peace Trials, as well as any sense of safety: the themes of torture, pain, and execution so prevalent in the artwork is also reflected in the music.
The disc kicks off with its namesake “Hallucination Guillotine.” A rusty lawnmower blade stutters to coherence, the ominous sound of dull whirring blades stuck in infinity. As the whirring gets louder, the blades speed up and get rustier. Death is imminent. Elsewhere, “Glitter Raider in the Hall of Triumph” has Forgues reciting some tone poetry before belting out an ungodly electronic squelch. The Reichian ideas of energy and orgones which Forgues has explored in previous work are still present here, with deadpan vocals evoking a mystical foyer: “I'm going to eject this corridor/ I swear, tonight I will sweep the floor!” The hallway seems to be a transformative vessel. "I flip through a wall/ Radiating outwards/ Burning light blasts from my body/ Energy stunt.” The track ends with gastrointestinal gurglings, perhaps the aural detritus of being transformed into pure light force.
And the similarities with the artwork don't end there. “Pink Shadows” draws some parallels to the “casual psychedelics” of John Wiese, while the protagonist of “Nice Garden / Lady's Compact” could be a doppelganger of Throbbing Gristle's badly-burnt “Hamburger Lady.” “Poison Blur” discreetly emits toxic vapors through your speakers, knocking you out until you regain consciousness just in time for the last track, “Final Worship,” which situates you in a strange land where tiny aborigines talk and play didgeridoos while also tying you down to the ground. Really, a warning should come with this album alerting you to the psychological beheading it can cause: Beware the Hallucination Guillotine.
More about: Kites
