413 - Path To The Hocma (2010)

From last.fm:


"413 is the name behind which hides the young basque David Pisabarro. This vocationally self-taught bass player first cut his teeth in various local-scene bands, in which he began to realize his maverick skills as a musician and writer, even as a constant caregiver of sounds, textures, layers and lyrics. Always delving into the dark side of art and the human being, 413’s music is passionate, seeker of new limits on the conventions that have been established gradually in contemporary music, feeling increasingly more comfortable in the experimental edge of the art and of itself, somewhere between what we label post-folk and post-rock, not ever dreading the risk of the very concept of sound. This passion also translates into a never-ending effort to soak up every single detail that will serve in his relationship with music or the learning process itself, as an author and as a producer.His first solo production (Reschith, 2008) is a reflection of that. Consisting of five compositions that naturally wander among the most extreme sides of the human mind, from the introspective and sentimental to the uproar about social reality, it achieved to collect very positive feedback from the most important underground and mainstream media (Rockzone, Feticeira).Between the Reschith and the recent Path to Hocma, 413 has completed a training process as an engineer and has achieved to be a successful producer in each of his single efforts for bands such as Thee Brandy Hips “We are Love”, Madeleine “Madeleine” and Cohen “Subconsicous Mind”. That latter production gave him the chance to work on the very basics of what was next shaped by Eskil Lövstrom and Pelle Henricsson (Refused, Cult of Luna, Hell is for Heroes,…). But now he finds himself on his own, embarking on an ambitious project, having no generational reference to base his work on: Path to Hocma is an album that could easily be labeled as conceptual, but will surely prove itself, in time, as the very embodiment of a transformation that makes it become something bigger, something of more significance, a multidisciplinary task that will be growing over the years and that will shaping and extending itself until it reaches a thousand levels of expression both musically and humanly. Its composition and production philosophy defines the product: it was written with no amplifiers, no guitars, without a studio to call home, based only on an electric bass. This radical bet looks for the most honest way to treat your own art: Path to Hocma can’t actually be purchased, but instead is freely available in both digital and CD format. So stay tuned. 413 is here to stay."


I just gotta start off this with WOW, OH WOW. Who would of thought something so original in the metal scene could arise? Well, 413 isn't ALL metal. The style is just very hard to describe. David Pisabarro, the mastermind behind 413, combines atmospheric and ambient soundscapes with heavy electric bass lines throwing in some psychedelic sounds and lots of noisy samples to give 413 a very avant-garde sound. The album starts with The Town, a track that almost reminds me of The Refused or some other early post-hardcore band. There is a bit of a metal sound to it which is very strange and it's almost melodic at times. Overall, just a very progressive song. Now, the next track The Desert Of The Real, starts out with a strange math rock riff and quickly transgresses into some random klanks and klunks which sounds like a someone beating a bunch of pots and pans in the kitchen or something. This track leads me to believe that Dave was inspired by a bit of krautrock or prog rock or something similar. As the album goes on, these elements that were presented in earlier songs start to make themselves known more and more until they're eventually all mixed together, creating some really unique and diverse soundscapes. Hell, there's even some kind of random folk something or other song thrown in called The Homca Point. The only thing that's coming to mind when listening to 413 is Neurosis and all those related bands. It's almost as if someone took away the sludge sound of Neurosis, threw in some folk-esque stuff along with some noise rock like Jesus Lizard, and just added some klanky prog rock. If I had to accurately label a band/project "post-metal", 413 WOULD be considered just that. It's really inspiring to hear that a normal guy from Spain who makes music like this straight from his bedroom has THIS much talent. I feel as if my description is way too bland for the kind of music David produces. Stop what you're doing and picking this album up. The whole "what is good music?" thing is obviously debatable but when it comes to 413 I would have to say they're objectively good. Seriously, it's fantastic! Avant-garde music at it's best. Be sure to check his website out here. You can directly download it from his website or here as well. Maybe send him an email and compliment him on his music? He did compose, mix, master, and all that wonderful jazz this album so he deserves all the credit in the world!

Download HERE