Review
Cremation Lily
Untitled

Strange Rules (2011) Bob

Cremation Lily – Untitled cover artwork
Cremation Lily – Untitled — Strange Rules, 2011

Bar none, I have never heard a more wondrous take on the violence of Power Electronics than the Untitled (which came in an extremely limited cassette run from the label Strange Rules) debut from Cremation Lily (a mysterious act from the British Isles). Without getting into the reasons or “how to’s” or “what for’s” of my finding this tape, suffice it to say, this has been one of my biggest surprises recently; and, as a result, Cremation Lily sits in an almost daily rotation on my various music paraphernalia (no, I am not joking at all).

Shards of noise, pounding industrial sounds, screeching, et al lay one of the most droning and hypnotically infectious just under ten minutes that you may ever hear and that is just in the first couple of minutes and then the mood and tenor of the sound changes from the frantic sonic assault to a more mellow and virtually serene aural pasture. Actually, this pattern is not dissimilar for both tracks on this tape as “Safety As A Womb” (where this pattern is more subtle but still evident) and “Funeral Lieu” (a more noticeable adherent to this pattern) find a way to both crush listeners with the opening acts and then subsequently mesmerize them with the hypnotic closing segments. As the last notes of the tape fade out, I consistently feel compelled to rewind and press play in order to hear (case in point, I have been listening to this for an hour and a half straight without stopping for a break); and just perhaps, this quality is exactly what makes Cremation Lily so infectious or so easily an object of obsession.

If I were you, I would kill to hear this and no, that is no joke; there might not be a more obscure but rewarding release to track down for quite a while, and, given that statement, extremely worth clamoring for a repress or reissue of some sort so that you too might be able hear this because this tape is exactly that good. Cremation Lily offers one hell of an opening salvo onto the world with a fine untitled tape begging only one single question; just what will this outfit unleash next?

8.0 / 10Bob • August 15, 2011

Cremation Lily – Untitled cover artwork
Cremation Lily – Untitled — Strange Rules, 2011

Related news

Cremation Lily's Dreams Drenched in Static

Posted in Records on March 5, 2022

More Cremation Lily reviews

Cremation Lily

2
Strange Rules (2011)

Bear with me here as I am in the middle of sonically orgasming while listening to this tape from Cremation Lily (the aptly titled 2 as this is the second tape from this project); no seriously, I am not overly hyperbolizing right now because these sounds literally elicit this kind of intense and powerful emotional response while the tape plays over … Read more

Cremation Lily

Sexless Merit
Strange Rules (2011)

Sexless Merit is a release that I have been fixating on for some time (listening to all three tapes over and over again, much to the annoyance of some people that may or may not live in my house anymore) all the while enjoying every minute but not quite having anything to say about the six pieces that inhabit these … Read more

Cremation Lily

Dreams Drenched In Static
Flenser (2022)

It has been quite a journey for Zen Zsigo and Cremation Lily, a path defined by constant flux. It was back in the early ‘10s, that the initial demos of the project appeared. Back then it was all about textural harshness, with Zsigo pushing the power electronics ethos. The initial chaos would subside, and from there on Cremation Lily explored a multitude of … Read more