Review Summary: Sliding doors.
The concept of destiny has been discussed philosophically since at least 300 bce and, whilst the still inconclusive framing of the term can transcend religion, mythology, rationality and science, I believe its imprint is heavy on the story of Cut The Navel String’s (CTNS) brief history.
Five young men from Angers, France, armed with a lofty, articulate, multi-layered concept decided to begin performing locally on the backdrop of a prolific, early-90’s metal scene. Their sensibility towards the artistic elements of their craft were immediately evident with the incorporation of visual elements such as slide projections and videos of animated oil paintings during their live shows and a sound that bridged both some of the trends that were developing at the time and some that were to come in the near future.
Cut The Navel String’s asphyxiating, oppressive atmosphere could easily be labelled industrial but it is a moniker that neither accurately reflects, nor has ever been accepted by the band itself. Their dissonant sound is too organic to be fully associated to the genre, even though glints of early Nine Inch Nails can be gleaned from an aesthetics point of view. Whilst drawing from metal acts of the time like Sepultura’s tribal elements, Nailbomb’s hardcore-tinged industrial thrash and the like, they seemed to stand apart thanks to their attention to atmosphere and what I think were some of the very first fingerprints of the genres that would develop to become some of the niche screamo and hardcore sounds.
The chance to bring their concept to a larger audience occurred within a mere year of existence on the 4th of December 1992 at
Les Rencontres Trans Musicales. More commonly known as
Les Transmusicales de Rennes, the four-day festival had become legendary in its thirteen years of existence for bringing to the attention of a notoriously discerning French public many future stars of an alternative slant, regardless of the genre. In fact, fate would have it that CTNS performed sandwiched between Nirvana, pre-Nevermind in 1991 and Bjork and Jamiroquai in 1993, to give an idea of the clout performing there could give an artist.
It was likely in their late afternoon time slot that they started turning heads and were soon signed by Roadrunner Records. Alongside the sky-rocketing grunge movement of the time, label mates of the ilk of Fear Factory, Life Of Agony, Type O Negative, Machine Head and Biohazard were all taking both the US and Europe by storm with their modern slants on heavy music. It was with these references that, along with a young Alex Newport on production, they retreated for three weeks to a remote studio in Wales to record what would be their one and only album, ‘Takis’.
Takis was a Greek sculptor who’s working methodology the band felt reflected their own and revolved around the kinetic relationship of energies; his studies of magnetism likely gave rise to the Lp’s opening track’s name, ‘Linear Correction Magnets’ but can effectively be sensed throughout the album in the band’s interplay and recurrent shifts between ambiance and aggression.
Immediately, the buzzing guitars and deeply depressing atmosphere take the listener by the throat; roaring, dissonant vocals attempt to cut through the wall of noise as if behind the musicians stood an enraged man with a megaphone. The rhythm section’s stop-start backbone hold up a jarring wall of guitars akin to the ones Newport was using in his Nailbomb project with Max Cavalera but with less of a hardcore feel to them.
The relentless, almost tribal pummelling continues until the third track, ‘Dream Life’, allows for a brief reprieve with a simple jangly riff introduction and a less filtered voice. Despite his attempts to stylize his vocals, this highlights the fact that the vocalist’s first language is not English, which could be jarring for some. ‘Dream Life’ builds in steps, gradually, frontman Deny sneering over a funky bassline until the band erupts into a breakneck pace and the convulsive, raging vocals take a more prominent place in the mix with respect the opening tracks.
‘No (Remorse)’ follows, starting with a strumming headstock before the drums fully embrace their tribal beats, reminiscent of elements of Sepultura’s sound in those years and that fully manifested themselves on their album ‘Roots’, released a year after ‘Takis’. Along with the thrashier ‘In Cold Blood’ or ‘The Last’, it is probably the track most associable to the term single the album has. Hidden between its seems are elements that, fate would have it, would be reworked by a rising, domestic, alternative metal scene and that would find in bands such as Mass Hysteria, Lofofora, No One Is Innocent
et al. precursors of the rap-metal movement of the following years, selling tens of thousands of records and rubbing shoulders with Sepultura, Slayer, a young Incubus, Asian Dub Foundation, Sugar Ray and the like.
To fathom the magnitude with which destiny did not smile upon CTNS, a good indicator could simply be the number of subscribers the French bands mentioned above have on their YouTube channels : they range between 1500 and 6500; CTNS have nine. A Mass Hysteria track has over 1.1 million viewings whilst no track from ‘Takis’, at the time of writing, even reaches 100…
‘Hopeless Case’ introduces a slower, almost psychedelic element to its build-up with Deny switching from a mumbling madman to a howling banshee whilst massive reverb grows behind him; saxophone is added to the mix to heighten a sound I can only describe metaphorically as ‘rolling ones eyes into the back of your head and swaying’. Whilst in no way the most memorable track, it illustrates how the band’s focus was mostly on creating an ambiance, a feel to their sound; the exchange of the senses is even evident on the cover art where a mouth-less humanoid has ears for eyes – a clear reference to the concept of experiencing their atmosphere as opposed to simply listening to the music.
The closer ‘Bloody Stains’ is another example of this, with Deny’s dissonant chanting and spoken-word growing over a bass-centric jam that reverts to an increasing deluge of distorted guitars before the tribal elements, this time with the bass taking the fore, drive the crescendo to an atmospheric finger-picked guitar and increasingly agonised yelps of the song title before fading out to silence.
Despite being an interesting debut, especially when collocated within its time, it is almost as though fortune turned its back on this band : their record label is still going to this day, their producer went on to work with At The Drive In a few years later and then The Mars Volta along with Melvins, Bloc Party, The Icarus Line, to name but a few ('Takis' is not even listed on his website's discography) and their national scene counterparts became domestic rock stars, touring with US metal legends and many are still producing albums to this day.
In hindsight, despite being one of the top metal labels of the time, Roadrunner was not a good fit for the band, especially in the light of the widespread criticism it received from many bands that were dropped if they did not garner instant commercial gratification. CTNS were never going to be able to satisfy them since, even surrounded by death and thrash metal bands, they were always going to be an acquired taste.
Whether you are a determinist and believe events are caused, or lean more towards fate where circumstances are simply decreed, there can be no
amor fati for Cut The Navel String's members. I on the other hand, as a young adolescent who had picked up a copy, intrigued by that cover art but not enamoured by the disc itself for many years, instead feel as though it
was fate that allowed me a rare glimpse into this little-known band and of what they could have become, given the chance to develop their sound. Since I would tend to err on the pessimistic side, garnered from the samey, recently produced B-sides vinyl release, the fact that we will never know is strangely comforting and gives 'Takis' a
gravitas far above its shortcomings.
