When I was a kid I used to love watching horror movies, Freddy, Jason, Cronenberg, you name it – I was addicted to these flicks that I often watched late in the night with my blanket covering one eye. Eventually as I got older I chickened out more and more, or better yet, horror flicks couldn’t give me the same rush anymore – I was immune. But every so often I will something that disturbs me, something that punches me in the gut and gives me that unsettling feeing. Watching Sikhara last weekend at XP, was in many ways like revisiting those horror movies collections of mine – it’s an experience you don’t walk away from unscratched.
This is essentially voodoo music – loud (and boy did it get loud sometimes), eerie, atmospheric, ritualistic, and completely deranged. It’s off-putting in the best sense.
I found it almost impossible to look away, as though if my eyes wander off the two, they would somehow magically disappear in a split second only to pop out from behind me. It’s this unpredictability that makes their performance so damn intriguing. And as in any ritual, eventually the kool-aid got to me, and I was ready to get my freak on and start speaking in tongues. I must admit too, some of their pieces have got some badass beat-driven mojo to them
Pitch black stuff indeed, but there’s a groove to it that I can definitely get down with, especially with Scott’s hypotonic incomprehensible vocals.
By the end of their set or trail, whatever you wanna call it, I swear XP was looking more like a wet, cold, ‘smelling of death’ dungeon. Maybe it’s best I bring my blanky next time.
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