Salac - Illicit Rituals. Bleep.

Press Release

Salac tread new paths forged by Plaque –

It’s a pleasure to see Clio & Max’s Salac project expand here once more, following on from their recent excellent ATC outing – and it makes full sense to see the two team up with Matt at Plaque – a long time friendship that was forged during earlier years studying in the city, and of course cemented during the rather legendary Slack Alice sessions at places like the Surrey Vaults (RIP).

This 60minute cassette sees the two draw from the depths of their mysterious pools of inspiration, drawing from spiritual zones and summoning the industrial grit together with the sinking sands of nature, for an at times ghostly and vaporous sphere, and an at times raw, impulsive and really quite explosive sound that feels like it’s tearing up from the inside out.

Illicit Rituals vibrates frequencies through time at a pace that is all encompassing and slower-than-slow at times, but can also lash out into fury’d pace at any moment. If we were to make some kind of visual scene of this piece here, maybe we’d say Salac’s Illicit Rituals flicker like a candle that burns quietly in the dark in the middle of nowhere, at night. But when you turn your eye away from the dancing light, the flames of hell might just light up the night and throw a shadow from your body that is not yours, or at least you didn’t think it was. Illicit Rituals is full of mystery and fog, nightmarish and dream-like all at once.

“Observe this liturgy of the wretched. Listen to their degenerate beat at your own discretion.

Celtic/West Country duo Salac conduct a seance, resurrecting the long cherished sound of our ancient isle’s esoteric underground. A forbidden ceremony performed by candlelight under venom induced delirium. Proceedings soon escalate into berserk and magick hysteria.

Once under its influence, debauchees chant incarnations and slither. Dancing sweaty, swivel-eyed into a frenzy of writhing, contorted bodies. Frantic incantations erupt from chilling reveries and hypnotic, screeching rhythms. It’s a trip that’s as lysergic and euphoric as it is truly unsettling and disturbing.”

This is a real gem, very special stuff.