Conor Fynes
'Zekhenu Uaut Setekh' - Senmuth (5/10)
Even after dozens of albums having been released, Senmuth still manages to throw the occasional curveball into his music, and the way he composes it. With 'Zekhenu Uaut Setekh', Senmuth makes his first one-song album, and while some may consider that nothing more than a singles EP at first glance, this single song (called 'Intermediate's Disaster') clocks in at around forty-one minutes long. While this may be a very exciting prospect for a familiarized listener of Senmuth's music (such as myself), the actual music itself is not all that dissimilar from the typical ethno-ambient work, making this an album that contributes little in the overall scope of Senmuth's vast discography.
Concerning the album/song title and the overlying theme, the album revolves around the destruction of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, an apparent spiritual sequel to the album 'Rstw', which dealt with a similar matter. As a result of a theme that revolves around the decay of a civilization that Senmuth obviously holds in high esteem, the music here is dark and tense, but not to such an extremity that it makes the rather dull music here sound much different from anything else Senmuth has written.
The music falls firmly into dark ambient territory, with a couple of recurring themes throughout the drawn out piece to give it a bit of structure. However, anyone expecting any sort of 'epic' here will come out dissapointed. The music here reprises many of the instruments Senmuth typically uses in his music, including atmospheric electronics, electric guitars (either pseudo- melodic lead work, or crushing industrial rhythms) and the tribal percussion work that's defined some of his earlier work.
While the album is great to put on as a somewhat interesting piece of background music, the album rarely manages tot take advantage of such a promising album premise, instead sounding like a few very drawn out ideas stacked together into one forty-one minute long compilation. Disappointing, but decent.