THC Retrospective Spotlight: NON

by: Rx Zenabi

Few have raised eyebrows and elicited such different extremist reactions as our next spotlight subject, the controversial provocateur, and also HIGHly influential musician, Boyd Rice, AKA NON, his solo industrial/experimental/martial noise and dark ambient/drone entity.

We revel in his two albums in particular featuring those range of esoteric sinister sounds.

The first NON record I heard is the initial auditory attack that initiated me to his works in the early 2000s, found in the wild from a local store (and later stolen, ha), the dimly lit industrial martial noise avant-garde wreckording, In The Shadow Of The Sword, originally released in 1992 under Mute Records.

The second other one, and seemingly bookending this review a decade later, is the CD/DVD set of the drone/dark ambient album Children Of The Black Sun, which I only got into recently only, due to just finding it in the wild (as always) and heavily spinning BOTH its CD and DVD hi-fi counterpart (basically the same album, only the latter in immersive audio format).

On In The Shadow Of The Sword, Boyd combines a live set recorded in Osaka, Japan in July 3rd 1989, and later, studio tracks recorded at Human Head Studios, Denver, Colorado, from the years 1991-1992.

The Osaka show is made even more evil sounding industrial and avant garde martial featuring collaborative performances with Doug Pearce of Death in June, Michael Moynihan of Blood Axis and Sleep Chamber, Rose McDowall of Strawberry Switchblade, and also contributor to Coil, Current 93, Death in June, Nurse with Wound, Psychic TV, and Tony Wakeford, ex-Death in June and Sol Invictus.

Together, the first 9 tracks make for an unsettling, captivating collection of eerie, hypnotic, slow burning experimental industrial wasteland tracks. Boyd and collaborators create an oppressive atmosphere with samples, keyboards, noise, heavy industrial clang, and pounding almighty martial percussion.

“Do you want TOTAL WAR?” declares Boyd, with reverb laden vocals, the track being the closing hymn of his well-celebrated album, 1997’s God and Beast.

From there, the live rituals further progress into the unknown. Solemn, ritualistic heavy drums, creeping synths, and ultra low vocal spoken word rhythms sound decrepit and trippy at the same time, creating moods that twist the listener. It then drowns them with its minor keys.

The distant, ancient sounding, otherwordly appeal of this first half dominates the album. It continues over the studio tracks, which are more layered, denser, and more noise infused, hypnotizing you with heady, evil, avante garde industrial as layers of heavy hypnotic discordance, disturbances, noise, and ghostly spectral voices blend and clash with FX-laden speeches and eerie spoken words from the abyss…

“Scorched Earth” features lines adapted from the infamous author, Ragnar Redbeard. “Love And Loves Murder” meanwhile borrows from analytical psychology founder Carl G. Jung, borrowing from ‘The Seven Sermons Of The Dead’

Somewhat of a contrast is his drone/dark ambient album Children of the Black Sun, released by Mute Records in 2002, a decade later. It is presented in a CD/DVD set, the latter of which is in Dolby 5.1, a more immersive hi-fi experience with a much more layered version of the album, perhaps more of a panoramic listening experience for audiophile drone/dark ambient connoisseurs (and snobs).

That said, NON’s mastery of ultra-hypnotic, engaging drone that builds and crescendos and gets mental is evident here. It may not be as extreme or layered as his other more celebrated works in the industrial/martial industrial realm, but it’s a cinematic, soundtrackish, sometimes even nightmarish 7 movements that comprise the discs.

Just relying on the drone/dark ambient classification may give the impression of aimlessly wandering sounds that some might think. But it is a diverse and engaging listen that doesn’t overdo the ambience nor overstay its droning sonic journeys.

From the opening of “Arka” and the horn drone intro of “Black Sun” building the upscale dread of “Serpents of the Heavens” and “Serpents of the Abyss”, to the last 3 tracks, it keeps listeners engaged, waxing and waning with unearthly minimalist drone and dark ambient combined. The trip even goes more textured, discordant, psychedelic, ethereal, ending with a primal synth and sinister spoken word epilogue, as it continues to expand sonic palettes.

The sound design and production, with veteran Denver, Colorado mastering engineer Bob Ferbrecher at the helm, help with the clarity and balance. He’s worked with Boyd, Michael Moynihan, Blood Axis, and did Boyd Rice & Friends albums, as well as Crash Worship, Human Head Transplant, 16 Horsepower, among many others, so he knows a thing or two about capturing and creating those otherworldly sounds.