Himukalt - Knife Through The Spine (Cold Spring)

Primitive, old school industrial, with an obsessive, post-mortem feel. This is the first CD edition of Himukalt’s cult 2018 LP (originally released on Malignant Records), remastered and including bonus material from the same recording sessions.

"There’s something uniquely old school and primitive at work here, capturing the claustrophobic, unsettled and fragmented sound of early Illusion of Safety or mid-late ‘80s industrial on a whole, contemporising it, and filling it in with an obsessive, post-mortem feel. Knife Through the Spine delivers a steady cascade of abstract sounds, festering with grinding pneumatic throb, coarse frequency blasts and sputtering electronic oscillations, with spliced snippets of processed, flanged vocals and a general sense of social anxiety and disaffection. A unique and challenging take on heavy electronics for fans of Puce Mary, She Spread Sorrow, Atrax Morgue".

Himukalt is the Nevada-based project of the enigmatic Ester Kärkkäinen. Presented in a 6-panel digipak.

"For her first vinyl album, Knife Through the Spine, [Himukalt] has fully embraced the early 1990s power electronic scene, creating a dark, disturbing, and at times extremely aggressive record that has a tighter, more specific focus in its sound" (Brainwashed)
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credits
released March 12, 2021

Recorded at Rommel, in pain and without Marie, in the wet and the dry of 2017, except for The American Redhead which was completed in 2020 out of source material from 2017.

Ester Kärkkäinen: noise, voice, electronics, xerox

Artwork by Ester Kärkkäinen
Layout by Abby Helasdottir
Mastered by Martin Bowes, January 2021

Reviews:

"‘Knife Through the Spine’, was the one [album] that really started to set her apart from her peers... Kärkkäinen’s brand of power electronics on ‘Knife Through the Spine’ was refreshing. It featured all the troupes we love about the genre, but it also added something else that stopped it all merging into one. The cascading abstract motifs were punctuated by a delightful pulsating pneumatic drone and explosions of aggressive electronics. All of this was peppered with anxiety and a feeling that things should be better but aren’t... The vocals are again undecipherable, but this adds to the charm... Ultimately ‘Knife Through the Spine’ is an exercise in restraint and balance... a wonderful feeling of movement without constantly ripping our heads off." (Vital Weekly)

"...a dark, disturbing, and at times extremely aggressive record that has a tighter, more specific focus in its sound. However, her unique take on the style, as well as her nuanced approach to creating music results in a fresh, unique release that sounds like no one else... Himukalt's sound is more personal and any sense of violence is more self-inflicted in nature. The depressive mood is akin to Maurizio Bianchi's early work, and the more violent outbursts are complementary to the bleaker, harsh moments in Atrax Morgue's discography... Ester Kärkkäinen has demonstrated impressive growth and change to her Himukalt project... she takes the dark, harsh sounds in a different, more personal direction... Kärkkäinen's inner demons make for a more captivating experience on the listening end." (Brainwashed)

"Sharp, gritty and to the point. Her sound is a hybrid of unhinged power electronics blended with a post-mortem stench, including minimal layering, throbbing synths and obsessive loops. The heavily flanged vocals, interwined into the rotting fabric of the music, are spliced into chunks of indecipherable murmurs and visceral shrieks. Don't make a mistake though and think of Himukalt as another clone of the usual PE terrorists. This is a strictly personal and original statement, a detailed depiction of self-loathing, as Kärkkäinen is mapping her psyche in front of us, channeling her negativity into an impressive album" (Corrupted Delights)

""Ester Kärkkäinen zeigt mit "Knife Through The Spine" der zartbesaiteten Gesellschaft stolz den Mittelfinger und zelebriert damit ein derbes Output, welches auch erst einmal verdaut werden will... wer auf Power Electronics steht, der sollte jedenfalls mal diese Sache anvisieren... so zelebriert Ester Kärkkäinen eine kernige Symbiose aus Power Electronics, dessen Blüten mittels Noise und anderweitiger Verfremdungen zum Ausdruck finden. Besonders die teils kräftigen 'Rhythmen' wissen dabei gut zu fruchten... "Knife Through The Spine" eine durchaus konsumierbare Angelegenheit, die Unvorsichtigen allerdings ziemlich schnell den Todesstoss versetzen könnte. Weicheier also Finger weg!" (Raben Report)

"ミニマル且つハード、アブストラクトに爆発するトラックと、エフェクト過剰なヴォーカルが強烈な”NUDE ON BEACH”、”STAGGERED. CRUSHED.”などなど、WOLF EYESや、PUCE MARY以降のセンスを持ちながら、80’Sインダストリアルや、90’Sノイズ/パワーエレクトロニクスが持っていたヤバさ、凶暴さを感じさせるヘヴィ・エレクトロニクスがとにかくカッコいい!" (Merurido)

"Puro eclecticismo sonoro donde se ha integrado con maestría dos estilos musicales como el noise y el power-electronics... cuya latente base musical se transforma en estas sólidas columnas estructurales sobre las cuales se ha apoyado y sobredimensionado esta potente fusión de noise con power-electronics, abriendo incluso el abanico conceptual al industrial, al high-tech ambient y a la electrónica experimental... mosaico musical extremo conceptualmente nihilista, emocionalmente perverso, y humanamente diabólico donde el noise es esencial, único e insustituible... excelsa y siniestra joya discográfica dentro de la apasionante escena musical electrónica non-mainstream" (Lux Atenea)

"A diferencia de los álbumes que editó en Total Black abordando la explotación sexual y las situaciones a las que se enfrentan las trabajadoras sexuales en su día a día, en esta producción nos sumerge en un abismo donde disecciona todo aquello que viene después de la muerte, comenzando por la descomposición de nuestro cuerpo" (My Blog Cliche)

"Insupportable, anxiogène, oppressant, effrayant, c'est le disque parfait pour un jeudi. Musicalement, on ne sent pas vraiment la touche féminine même quand on sait qu'il y a une femme derrière ce projet. Il n'empêche que ça pulse ici bien plus qu'ailleurs" (Nova Express)