Arrington by Dyoniso's Malaikat Dan Singa, Honey and Poison, 2018 ENG

Arrington by Dyoniso's Malaikat Dan Singa, Honey and Poison, 2018

By: Erreh Svaia

Rock N Roll Animal

Arrington of Dyoniso is one of those rare artists who break with all the schemes and whose music, despite being so unique, is simply not destined to exist in this world, an innate provocateur, a worshiper of tribal music from many parts of the world, a worshiper of Fire Music or Free Jazz, part Nick Cave, part Captain Beefheart, part Albert Ayler, pretending to classify Dyoniso is not an easy job, one day he creates an album in the twisted blues style of Captain Beefheart, the next day a free jazz album in the style of Albert Ayler, the other performs an album based on William Blake´s in Indonesian language, the other one in nervous post punk and the other simply uses his throat to sing in the style of the vocalists Tuvan of Mongolia, paraphrasing a bit the same words of Arrington, he simply channels the sounds of the universe through his person, now, I have followed Dyoniso´s career for years, his instrumental music, his solo music, his group music and his series of recordings in a way of ethnic research in the style of those who used to make the legendary CAN, in particular Honey and Poison, his album in conjunction with his band Malaikat Dan Singa (Angels and Lions), with which he opened this 2019 and with which he seemed determined to finish his career, what seems to become the so-called "swan song" of his artistic vision, which he describes, seems to be being destroyed in the midst of a less open and more closed world.

Broken Vessels starts with brutal guitars and a solid rhythm of drums, Dyoniso spits out old-fashioned vocals from the most venomous and reptilian Nick Cave, a mixture of raw blues and post punk, Dyoniso would say something like punk trance, could be, the truth is that it is almost hypnotic to hear, at times it would also seem that we listen to a very young John Cale in his wildest and most amazing times (under the destructive spell of cocaine), where Cave himself got great inspiration, for There Is No Reason ,which seems to remind me of something like the title of a Velvet Underground song (where we will return later), again the drum rhythms are solid and hard, the guitars rattle and provide the background for the nervous exercises of Dyoniso that could remember a bit to David Byrne (Psycho Killer, of course), maybe, but then, something happens, the music becomes really raw and wild to reach Oh! Spark of Impulse, a sort of piece that seemed to invoke Captain Beefheart and the Suicides alike, with Dyoniso returning to life the legendary Alan Vega, who died unfortunately just a couple of years ago, the magic of the studio is present in this subject, with an amazing production that makes even more beastly the moment Arrington introduces his wild saxophone.

Definitely post punk is the song that gives the album its name, its angular guitars and its intermittent batteries give it away immediately, what surprises me most is the vocal work of Arrington that at times reminds me a bit of Lou Reed or Iggy Pop here, perhaps a rather primitive version of Ian Curtis's Joy Division, the subject is brutal, and short, and then comes Mingkar Mingkur, in which Arrington makes his customary marriage of the almost animal vocal of Captain Beefheart and the mystical throat intonations of the vocalists Tuvan, a raucous combination that will surely alienate more than one casual listener, there are songs like One Black Hole Consumes Another, which more than one will take us by surprise, is tribal, minimalist, confusing, vibrant and at the same time hypnotic, It is one of those issues where it seems that everything will fall apart and that it is almost miraculous that the issue reaches a conclusion, are some of those great risks that we appreciate taking in the discs, but Dyoniso manages to balance it with a hilarious but faithful version in Spanish of the All Tomorrow's Parties of the Velvet Underground, entitled here as well as Todas las Fiestas de Mañana.

Honey and Poison could be the last recording of Arrington of Dyoniso, I doubt it, to be true, I'm sorry, since this is a great album, a true reflection of the very personal and unique musical vision of one of the truly original and daring characters from the avant-garde scene of recent years, an album full of real surprises, incredible moments and talented performances, of those records that one would expect to see more often in the times we live in today, but apparently the fear of uncertainty, to the unpredictable and the risky will end up extinguishing them.