Catacombs by The Observatory

The Observatory with Bani Haykal.

Sometime in late March, a copy of The Observatory's fifth album 'Catacombs' quietly arrived and sat on the desk. The man and I literally made a mad dash for it. Both wanted to listen to it first. No sharing. Unpacking from the trip could wait. I always do that fast anyway. Importantly I wanted to listen to Catacombs without interruption. The first listen of a new album cannot be relegated to be background music.

The music blew through the amps and speakers. Bleak, dreary and dark. Very randomly, but not surprisingly, I thought about the Catacombs (l'Ossuaire Municipal), and the Camden versions and those that run under the gorgeous West Norwood Cemetery. It isn't an eerie sort of imagining. It's more of a surrealistic dreamscape of wandering through the narrow tunnels and caverns alone, in search of...something. (View their 'Enter The Catacomb' trailer here; their recording and mixing process here.)

Held at The Substation, the band tells you that the album launch is a "study in delusion, insanity and obsession, CATACOMBS provokes and inspires in a deeply enigmatic way. Even at its coldest and most abstract, it is human to the core." Well. The Observatory's music has evolved through the years. It's become more avant garde rock with incredibly complex and seemingly incomprehensible discordant harmonies. But of course. For a final flourish, they chose to cover classic goth rock band Bauhaus' 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'.

Upon this second listen, it's still tough for me to interpret the music, not that it's necessary. I interpreted it the only way I know how- as a dance. That, I can do. Created the dance movements in the head to the music. Paired this way, it's definitely more manageable. The music doesn't set out to be obscure. It sets out to be primal and evocative. Make what you will out of it.