MATER SUSPIRIA VISION
Inverted Triangle III LP
Phantasma Disques

You drop the tab and as you feel the first lift the clockwork elves appear, pour you a drink. They chatter playfully and wind up the music box. You hear a soothing voice you can't quite understand and then the clockwork elves seize you and open up your third eye with a long, narrow dagger. Your surroundings once so familiar that you no longer noticed any part in detail is now populated with figures of haunting and haunted glamour. Mannequins seem to be sentient and eyes of living people betray no conscious thought. There is something terrible lurking beyond vision and sound. This thing that can not be described is not a beast out of Lovecraft, nor is it the usual petty and violent criminal figures of fear. The journey into the world of Inverted Triangle III has begun.

Side one opens up with a sound collage and keyboard sequence that is like a mescaline trip that kicks in at the perfume counter a Macy's. Even though brightly lit, the atmosphere is heavy with mystery. The first beat drops at four minutes in, evoking Sirkle Zero era Sleep Chamber and the first Enigma release simultaneously. There is a blanket of voices weaving in and out of the arrangements from the start of La bocca è la tana del bianco coniglio (part 1) that create a continuous backdrop that reaches a crescendo in the appropriately titled Hieronymus Bosch and trails off into a decaying glossalalia. Side one concludes with a soft keyboard wash the traquility of which is shattered at points with stabs of jarring discordance that are gone as suddenly as they appear. Here is the vivid evocation of Giallo films MSV are so well known for.

Side two begins with a continuation of the feel of horror that concluded the end of side one. The first track Onodelia (feat. Agnes Pándy) sounds like a gibbering coven of witches in the grip of belladonna bay and scream over a backdrop of abstract synths and echoing, bubbling percussion. The sound moves seamlessly through startk and simple arrangements that would not be out of place on a Tangerine Dream film soundtrack through more ecstatic reversed percussion with layers of operatic voices. One could almost imagine this is an Ennio Morricone scored film directed by Rinse Dream and re-edited by Harmony Korine. Not until the final minutes of the record do we get the by now obligatory pulsing square wave synth bass and reverb cloud of most witch house. But here these elements sound fresh and the wash of reverb hides nothing.

If your exposure to witch house has been through quick and lo-fi tracks on bandcamp or hastily compiled drag mixes on soundcloud, you will be very surprised with the excellent and dynamic production of Inverted Triangle III. There is as much precise craft to the production and material as there is inspiration and sonic exploration. Some may feel a lack in the absence of hooks. Some hipsters who have proclaimed witch house and several succeeding genres dead since it metastasized on the belly of subculture may find this release a tad earnest. I find it a most gratifying and disturbing pleasure to witness the creative power of Mater Suspiria Vision in full bloom on Inverted Triangle III.

5/5