Short Eternities by Christoph de Babalon

Get the CD version here: https://loveloverecords.bandcamp.com/album/short-eternities

With a career spanning over two decades, Christoph De Babalon has consistently created music that stands apart from contemporaneous trends. Early 12”s such as ‘Destroy Berlin!’ on Alec Empire’s Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR) and ‘We Declare War’ on his own Cross Fader Enter Tainment (CFET) outlet first presented his cathartic brand of noise-orientated drum & bass and his isolationist tendencies, with extensive support from the late John Peel and Thom Yorke helping Christoph achieve somewhat of an outsider-status. More recently his ability to remain separated from specific spheres of influence has allowed him to deliver uncompromising releases like the mutated conceptual album ‘Scylla & Charybdis’, as well as his diverse 2012 album ‘A Bond With Sorrow’ on Tigerbeat6, marking a departure from the chaotic flurries he was perhaps previously more known for.

‘Short Eternities’ sees Christoph once again exploring the abrasive nature of his earlier work whilst maintaining throughout the album a level of measured assuredness not often seen in this area of music. Album opener ‘Barely You’ serves as a powerful message of intent interlacing a fractured drum break with tense horror tones, whereas detailed ambient atmospheres such as those in ‘Wait For Me’ and ‘It’s Returning’ alongside the hypnotic rumblings of ‘Home is Here’ and ‘Bad Dreamer’ break apart the extremities of the album, providing an opiated atmosphere within which the album swims around. This cinematic presentation allows for a far greater impact when the climactic ‘Haunting Past’ finally hits home with its finely-tuned blend of jarring distortion and moody surroundings, followed hastily by the twisted drum breaks and writhing bass-line of ‘Fairreality’. Christoph touches upon a rich shadowy darkness akin to a handful of contemporaries such as Demdike Stare and Vatican Shadow but with a vigour that captures the anarchic spirit of early breakcore. It is the explorative and ritualistic nature of his method, combining paradoxical feelings of euphoria, introversion and explosive aggression, which truly makes Christoph’s music so compelling.

christophdebabalon.com
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