Gawthrop makes heavy music seemingly possessed of an absolute minimum of subtlety. It’s sludgy, blunt and slow, organized by doom’s worship of the riff as an end in and of itself. But for all the surface-level appearance of caveman-ish stupidity, the Korean band has imbued Kuboa with an unusually literary semiotic range of reference — and your reviewer is still struggling to figure out why this Seoul-based outfit seems to have adopted the name of a tiny hamlet in Yorkshire’s West Riding. Songs on Kuboa like “Jumbo” and “Hogweed” thunder and gurgle as if their ugly sounds were entirely self-justifying, but the mysteries suggested by other elements of the record are by turns teasing and provoking.
Some things on Kuboa, like its music, seem to require little explanation. The title of “Hogweed” signals painful irritation, suppurating boils and nature’s capacity to make us suffer. “Nutria,” perhaps the slowest grind of a song on a very slow record, signals an interest in nature’s tendency to overwhelm human regulatory schemas; see statements from the state governments of Texas, Louisiana and California about the invasive rodents’ persistence and threat to localized ecosystems.
But the title of album opener “Bulbocapnine” is less straightforward. The song thumps and growls, its down-tuned thrums shot through with high-pitched drones and skirls. And no wonder: bulbocapnine is an alkaloid that can induce catalepsy when ingested and has been experimentally used by both the CIA (for real) and by Dr Benway, a recurring character in the fiction of William S Burroughs. Readers of Naked Lunch (1959) will remember Dr Benway as cynical, hugely corrupt and monstrous. Here’s a relevant passage from the novel’s “Benway” episode: “Pending more precise knowledge of brain electronics, drugs remain an essential tool of the interrogator in his assault on the subject’s personal identity…. Bulbocapnine induces a state approximating schizophrenic catatonia … instances of automatic obedience have been observed.”
Slightly less hair-raising is the literary significance of “Granfalloon,” which provides the title of another track on Kuboa. The term comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (1963) and the novel’s fictive, transcendentally nihilistic religion Bokononism. In its Bokononist sense, a granfalloon is “a proud and meaningless association of human beings,” such as, Vonnegut asserts, “the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company — and any nation, anytime, anywhere.” More recently we might cite the “proud and meaningless association” of human beings in American public life with the residue of Charlie Kirk’s politico-cultural presence. Nancy Mace is part of that granfalloon. So, it seems, is Ezra Klein. So it goes.
It's tempting to speculate about a possible thematic throughline there: one can think of the compulsory, spiritually empty expressions of fealty to nationalisms or fascisms made by people who are not more authentically captured by those poisonous charms. Fascism works best when we knuckle under and comply in advance, signing loyalty oaths or toeing the line on what can be said. South Korea has its own ascendant nationalist politics, largely associated with the People Power Party and its predilections for martial law and incel-adjacent Idaenam rhetoric. For sure, Gawthrop’s music is bummed out and pissed off about something. In America as well as South Korea, there’s plenty to be pissed off about.
Bret Easton Ellis reviews books b/c he's obligated to by his Canyons Kickstarter
But the first Bret Easton Ellis reviews is "Regard" by Pablo D'Stair. I guess Pablo gave him a lot of money. This is cool b/c Pablo puts out books on KUBOA House, such as "Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom" by Mel Bosworth, "Ambient Florida Position" by Josh Spilker, and tons more. And it's a pretty favorable review.
in the beginning
god shouted
'LET THERE BE LIGHT'
and so it was
and in the end,
someone will say
'...' 'so go.'
in the end,
someone will say
'do you take this man
+
do you take this woman.'
in the end,
someone will say
'this can be no longer.'
and in the end,
someone will say
'i need you
+
i love you'
and so it will all come to pass.
Kuboa, Leioako udaletxeak antolatu zuen ideien biltegi eta aldi berean, elkartzeko toki bat da. Iraunkortasunari buruzko tokiko jardunbide egokien sukaldea da, baita sukaldatzeko daudenena ere. Hiritarrak, enpresak edo eta elkarteak lantzen, asmatzen edo amezten dituzten jardunbide egokiak jasotzen ditu kuboak.
Aktibitate egokiak biztanleen bizi kalitatean eta ingurugiroan eragin nabarmena eta neugarria duten ekintzak edo ekimenak dira. Eragin hori jasangarria izateaz gain, beste herriek, herrialdeek edo eskualdeek behin jardunbideok ezagututa, eredu moduan har ditzakete eta beraien egoerara moldatu ditzaketen jarduerak dira.
Jada bi izan dira, kuboak agenda21eko taldearekin burutu dituen ekintzak, beti ere ingurugiroarekin lotuta. Azpimarratzekoa da, ekintza hauek hiritarren eskuetatik proposatuak izan direla.
Azkenik, adierazi nahi da kuboa orain Leioako campusean kokatuta dagoela. Bertara hurbildu gara, antolatzaileetako batekin hitz egitera eta berak (Ane) esan duenez ez da ikasle asko hurbildu parte hartzera. Izan ere, hurbildu den asko "derrigortuta" hurbildu dela adierazi digu; gelako lan bat burutzeagatik gehien bat.
Actually, in my opinion, a man didn't have to be insane to be sensitive. There were people who could be wounded by trifles and whom a single hard word could kill. I gave her to understand that I was that sort of a person.
The unnamed protagonist from Knut Hamsun's Hunger.
Note: I preferred Bly's—over Lyngstad's definitive—translation of this passage, and I added the emphasis. It's fitting to mention that the character could also be saved from complete madness, self-annihilation, by a single 'word': kuboa.
