Cinema Cinema – Mjölnir
Release Date: 14th July 2023
Label: Nefarious Industries
Bandcamp
Genre: Art Punk, Noise.
FFO: Swans
Review By: Hillary Wisniewski
From the borough of Brooklyn, New York comes the art punk act Cinema Cinema with their new album Mjölnir. The brainchild of cousins Ev Gold and Paul Claro, this group formed in 2008 and have been working and touring diligently since that time. Most notably they toured in support of Greg Ginn projects including Black Flag. Mjölnir sees the duo adding to their ranks by incorporating polymath percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Thor Harris (Swans, Angels Of Light, Shearwater); the addition helps to expand the experimentation and overall sound.
Generally speaking, there are times in which this album has a great juxtaposition between haunting, delicate dynamics and more intense and pummeling sounds. Percussion and synth really carry this work; guitar plays a sparse, but albeit important role in rounding everything out. Some albums that are promoted in the art punk/noise arena can be downright unlistenable (and at times intentionally so), but that is not the case for Mjölnir. One might think it would be hard to craft vocals that “fit” with the sound since it is so complex, but Gold confidentially shifts between crooning to spoken word to screaming. It is impressive. Lyrically speaking, the songs are full of raw emotion. For example, on the track My Vision of the Future “In my vision of the future, you’re not included…Make no sense of you and me, I’m going to take you from my memory, make better sense of you and me… You’ve been deleted. You’ve been erased.” The delivery sounds like Gold is pushing these lyrics through clenched teeth and one can feel his anger and anguish hang heavy in the air. A track that sums up the act well is Zero Sum and I suggest you check it out if you want to get a feel for what Cinema Cinema is about. There are some moments in this work that remind me of early Laurie Anderson which was unexpected, but a lovely surprise.
There is a lot of talent in this group and it is an interesting work. Personally I would have to be in a certain head space to listen to this and I couldn’t see myself having it on heavy rotation. But something tells me Cinema Cinema wouldn’t particularly care if people find their work highly listenable. Bottom line: if you want a good experimental album, then you will appreciate Mjölnir .
(3.5 / 5)
