Album Details

• Artist: These Are Powers
• EP:
Taro Tarot
• Label: Hoss
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2009-05-05

Bassist Pat Noecker calls the music of These Are Powers "ghost punk," and, you know, it fits. "Taro Tarot" rages full no with gritty post-punk seriousness, but also manages to create an ambient sheen that is as mind-blowing as your fave stoner/psych metal bands. Truly hypnotic , while also providing a direct kick in the balls, this is a mini-masterpiece of evocative, visceral moods.

Fans of both early Pil and Tom Waits will be happy with tunes like "All Night Services" and "Cockles," tunes that are jarring but make their own kind of sense, tracks that bring both the carnival and the grand guignol at the same time. There are plenty of noisier songs too, that scrape along like a chained animal.  "Chipping Ice" especially will please noise fans, and its gloomy atmospherics may attract some who shy away from noise.  This is a band who constantly disproves the fallacy that noise has no color or form. These Are Powers give form to silence as well as to noise.

"Taro Tarot" blends post-punk with noise, goth and ambient whimsy to create a hermetic, powerful and cathartic release. They are kindred spirits with their influences, and have added their paragraph to the history of experimental rock. These Are Powers is an apt name for this project, since on display and explored are several known and unknown dark corners of sonic power.

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