In Cod We Trust
Ipecac, 2006
rating: 3/5
reviewer: split foster

Former Sugarcube Einar Örn and Curver come together to form Ghostigital, an improvisational noise-hop outfit doing its very best to dismantle the usual critical labels of Icelandic music: glacial, majestic, mystical, etc. In Cod We Trust is a felicitous migraine of a record, prefect for purging any catchy melodies or pop hooks stuck in your head. Each song is a cacophonous mix of Kid A-style horn freakouts, distorted and relentless hip-hop beats, and the bewildering tag team of straight MC verse and Örn's spoken and shouted absurdities. According to the liner notes, "confusion is the message," and this message is clearly conveyed. Cod is too patterned and song-oriented to be appropriately classified as noise, but it is nonetheless very aggressive vis-à-vis the listener, with its playful masochism challenging both patience and ear drums. The listening becomes perhaps even more arduous with repeated spins, as you know what is coming, you know it will hurt, and you know you will sit through it. The songs can become monotonous when they let the beats dominate without cramming in the leftfield assaults that make numbers like "The Heart" both coy and cruel.

Although grueling at times, extra minutes spent with the album can be rewarding, as Ghostigital's maximalist approach leads to songs fattened with ephemeral moments of order, melody, and humorous lyrics not always immediately apparent. "Strange as It Might Seem," for example, blasts and thrashes through polyrhythmic textures that are almost catchy, pulling the song into a parsec-distant orbit of the Talking Heads. This song seems less malignant with regard to the listener; it's more as if you are being carried along on a violent mission with the artists, a listening experience that weirdly approximates that created by gangster rap bangers. It's not often that I'm prepared for this type of aural scathing (seriously, after a while the angry klaxons make me feel as if strips of duct tape are being ripped directly off my brain), but sometimes being emptied and deafened to everything save a muffled ringing is just the musical tonic I need. If this is what you are looking for, Ghostigital gets the job done in sly, strident fashion.

1. Good Morning
2. Not Clean
3. Northern Lights
4. Totally Confused
5. The Heart
6. Green Lounge
7. Crackers
8. Black Sand
9. Strange As It May Seem
10. Dream of Sleep
11. Sense of Reason