Revolt of the Apes

Every now and again – if you’re lucky, if you’re open to it – an album may drop into your life and strike you not merely as enjoyable, but as obsession-worthy. “Maxed Out on Distractions” – the soon-to-be released new album from Corners – is not merely enjoyable; it’s obsession-worthy.

Or so it would seem. It’s been just four days since “Maxed Out on Distractions” dropped into our life – not much time for a full-scale obsession. Yet not much time is needed to tune in to the warped-wavelengths provided by Corners (in fact, the simple, solid, stand-alone ten-note bass line that opens the album may be all you need – it certainly was for us).

And if you’ve ever found yourself drained by frustration, overwhelmed with boredom, or filled with neurotic cravings, Corners warped-wavelengths may sound something like a warm welcome home. Yes, you may already be “Maxed Out on Distractions” – who isn’t?

Describing Corners’ sound is no easy task. Void of the mythical, “Let the Sun Shine In”-vibe carried so carefully by their Californian comrades, Corners trade in the dark stuff that bubbles under the skin and through the brain, their bass, drums, guitar and synths – mighty, monolithic synths – somehow crushing that confusion into compact song-gems of unlimited power and instant memorability.

There’s much more than merely a scent of goth-gloom throughout the proceedings, just the faintest echo of the surf guitar born of their West Coast birthplace, and enough “BIPPP” to make you flip. “Maxed Out on Distractions” is the rare, remarkable record that is able to take lyrical lacerations like “Held up in and booted from the house built within polarizing glares / big X’s in the sky for fear” and turn them into songs that fill our strained head endlessly (or at the very least, for four obsessive days). It’s the farthest thing from a “feel-good” record, and it feels great.

“Maxed Out on Distractions” may be a flawless record. It’s impossible to say for certain – but it sure sound that way.

“Maxed Out On Distraction” is available for pre-order from Lolipop Records.

“How unsatisfactory desire can feel can be gauged by considering our more obviously neurotic cravings, those emerging out of a dull feeling of frustration, boredom, and emptiness. We look for something pleasurable in order to fill that void and relieve the boredom, at least partially and temporarily. You eat a chocolate or drink a cup of tea or put on a piece of music not so much for the positive enjoyment of such things but more because you don’t know what else to do. It is these kinds of craving that should concern us most, more than those that arise out of a strong, healthy appetite. And the way to deal with them is to regard the boredom itself as a positive opportunity. It is like having to deal with fear, anger, or indeed craving, or any other negative mental state. It is an opportunity to experience the energy that is usually drained away by distractions. When you are really bored, the best thing you can do is sit down and let yourself experience the boredom more fully. It may not be a deep or satisfying state, but at least you are not indulging in the things with which you usually cover up this kind of experience. Your real state of mind is more nakedly exposed, because for the time being there are no distractions. If you can stay with the experience of boredom, you can try to feel your way through into something deeper, truer, and more spontaneous within yourself.

This is likely to be more helpful than trying to force a more positive state into being or rushing to alleviate the boredom with a distraction. After a while you should find that the boredom passes. You will start to feel more positive simply by virtue of experiencing yourself more truly. And feeling more positive, you will probably want to get on with actually doing something positive. But if the minute you start feeling bored you turn on the radio or pick up the newspaper or ring somebody up, then you’ve lost the opportunity that the boredom has presented you.” – Sangharakshita, “Living Wisely: Further Advice from Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland”

They are called Tolchock. They are from Japan. They are two people who like to play loudly, for extended periods of time. Their cassette, on Sky Lantern Records, is called “After Fog Open,” and the first of three songs clocks in at a length of eighteen minutes and forty-four seconds.

It’s possible that along your way through “After Fog Open, you’ll hear bass and drums and guitars and howls and moans (of the type that arouse suspicions of Daughters of the Sun-worship, though that’s really just us doing the worshiping). It’s possible that you’ll at one point hear a flute that seems to come alive, Freddie-style, and just as soon appears to perish in a swell of volume.

Anything is possible with Tolchock and we find their sound to be extraordinary.

Everything else is up to you.

So let’s talk about something else.

And make no mistake – “After Fog Open” is perfect, absolutely perfect, for something else. For contemplating something else. For doing something else. For going somewhere else. And that something else, of course, can only be this, can only be what is right here. Only “things as it is.”

And what’s right here is Tolchock. And Tolchock is something else, indeed. It is the insistent pull of the drone that dominates the duo’s doings, igniting crushing constellations of sound from modest parameters, creating these inconceivably monolithic songs quite literally out of thin air, manifested in patterns that quickly turn in on themselves, repeat themselves, double themselves, become unmoored from themselves, contradict themselves, unleash themselves, see themselves through.

You may find yourself – or your lack-of-self thereof – following a similar pattern. But as we say: everything else is up to you.

“After Fog Open” is available on cassette from Sky Lantern Records. A digital version is available at the band’s Bandcamp page.

“So if you think enlightenment is just a personal experience, this idea of enlightenment is like collecting only square stones or only round stones. If someone likes beautiful stones, in which you can see something blue and some­thing white, if that is his enlightenment, he will keep collecting the same stones. But with so many of the same stones, you cannot build an interesting garden. You should use various stones. Enlightenment is the same. If you attach to some par­ticular enlightenment, that is not true enlightenment. You should have various enlightenments. And you should experience various experiences, and you should put more emphasis on relation­ships between one person and another. In this way, we should practice back and forth, according to the position in which we find ourselves.

This is the outline of our practice and how you attain it. If enlightenment is just collecting, or just being proud of a kind of experience, that kind of ex­perience will not help you at all. And if that were enlightenment, there would have been no need for Buddha to strive hard to save people after he attained enlightenment. What is the purpose of wandering about the dusty road of illusion? If attaining enlightenment is the purpose of zazen, why did Bodhi­dharma come to China from India and sit for nine years on Shaolin Mountain? The point is to find our position moment after moment, and to live with people moment after moment according to the place. That is the purpose of our practice.” – Shunryu Suzuki Roshi