“一堆破碎的景象—奮力錘煉著地面的太陽，不能再提供任何陰涼的已經(jīng)死去的樹，已無力鳴叫的蟋蟀，干燥得不能再干的石頭…..我會(huì)在無邊的沙風(fēng)中展示我的恐懼”（A heap of broken images, where the sun beats/And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief/And the dry stone no sound of water.... I will show you fear in a handful of dust.），這些在100年前就由TS Eliot在<The Waste Land> 中寫下的干渴的句子簡直可以拿來當(dāng)作Puce Mary這張《The Drought》的題辭。首先，從專輯名稱來看，這張專輯關(guān)注的是一種原始生存條件的缺失：一種惡劣的，令人戰(zhàn)栗的自然災(zāi)害---干旱。雖根基于工業(yè)噪音和強(qiáng)電，但是這張專輯回避了這些流派的刻板印象---大男子主義和對(duì)強(qiáng)大力量的盲目崇拜。取而代之的是，它展現(xiàn)了力量的缺失，工業(yè)的失敗。Puce Mary (又名Frederikke Hoffmeier)的這張專輯講述了在一場(chǎng)大干旱的背景之下在隱秘的網(wǎng)絡(luò)世界的孤立和疏遠(yuǎn)的身體接觸（也就是隔離）之間徘徊的生活。

“A heap of broken images, where the sun beats/And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief/And the dry stone no sound of water.... I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” These parched words, written almost 100 years ago by TS Eliot, in?The Waste Land, could easily double as an epigraph for?Puce Mary’s?The Drought. Starting with the title, the record concerns itself with a primordial lack: a rotting, shuddering collapse both personal and global. Though rooted in industrial music and power electronics,?The Drought?sidesteps those genres’ stereotypical displays of machismo and fetishistic celebrations of strength. Instead it evokes an absence of power, the failure of industry. Puce Mary (aka Frederikke Hoffmeier) soundtracks a life spent vacantly shuttling between insidious digital isolation and alienated bodily contact, set against the background of a looming apocalypse.

聆聽《The Drought》的體驗(yàn)就像看電影一般。對(duì)于看過《女巫》和《皮囊之下》這種新播出的藝術(shù)性恐怖電影的人，會(huì)感覺這張專輯的音色是比較熟悉的。轟隆隆的弦樂如雷一樣在灰暗的天空中響徹天際，與此同時(shí)咚咚的鼓聲、咆哮的電聲也紛紛響起。但是這張專輯并沒有采用電影中一貫的三部曲的形式，Hoffmeier之前的作品《Persona》和《The Spiral》的標(biāo)題都及其生動(dòng)，但是《The Drought》不一樣，它沒有直接說明專輯的主題，而是在剛開始就給人一種穩(wěn)定的預(yù)感----這張專輯會(huì)像“伯格曼環(huán)化反應(yīng)”一樣著了魔似的繞圈子，如果說《The Spiral》講述的是一種下降，《The Drought》畫出的軌跡則是則是圓，它勾勒出的畫面是在一片蒼涼的風(fēng)景之上四面八方拍攝的慢鏡頭。

The Drought?is extremely cinematic. Many of the timbres will be familiar to fans of recent highbrow horror excursions like?The Witch?and?Under the Skin. Pealing strings stretch across grey skies while thudding toms, roaring static, and claustrophobic low end seep into the mix. But there is no easily digestible three-act arc to be found here. Hoffmeier’s previous titles,?Persona?and?The Spiral, are revealing.?The Drought?moves with a steady foreboding worthy of Bergman, obsessively tracing the same terrain over and over again. If?The Spiral?suggested a descent,?The Drought?traces a circle. The film it conjures is a slow-motion 360-degree pan across an ashen landscape.

從頭聽來，前兩首歌使用的樂器是略為單調(diào)的，直到第三首歌這張專輯才總算變得生動(dòng)起來，“To Possess Is to Be in Control”中，她低聲吟誦著一篇關(guān)于欲望的論文，而她這樣凝練的聲音也正是這首歌的支點(diǎn)，她以縈繞的鼓點(diǎn)和持續(xù)的口哨聲（也許是貓叫聲？）相應(yīng)和而收尾，隨后她喃喃道："向你敞開我的身體，把我的一切交給你，這讓我感到惡心。如果我能像我占有自己的身體一樣占有你的話……"（It makes me sick to open my body to you, to give you all I have. If I could possess you, like I possess my own body….”）。她說的最后一句話--"占有就是控制"（To Possess Is to Be in Control ）--得到的回答卻是像刀刃一樣鋒利的咯噔咯噔的聲音。Hoffmeier似乎急切地想把這首歌撕裂，她痛苦的扭動(dòng)和低吼著，但又同時(shí)保持著冷靜。

Opening with a pair of desolate instrumentals, the album really comes alive on the third track. “To Possess Is to Be in Control” pivots on Hoffmeier’s laconic voice intoning a droning micro treatise on desire. It winds up with a vaporous cloud of haunting half melodies and floating whistles (catcalls?), and then she dives right in: “It makes me sick to open my body to you, to give you all I have. If I could possess you, like I possess my own body….” Her last line—“To possess is to be in control”—is answered with staccato bursts of noise, sharp as a knife’s blade. Hoffmeier seems to be tearing her way out of the track, writhing and snarling while simultaneously keeping her cool.

這張專輯的主題在兩首歌曲之后的專輯中心部分得到了延續(xù)。“Red Desert”同樣呈現(xiàn)了在大干旱這種惡劣條件下人與人之間的疏遠(yuǎn)和恐懼。防空警報(bào)盤旋，Hoffmeier嘆息道："我感覺好像是幾十年過去了。我現(xiàn)在是個(gè)老女人，我已經(jīng)沒什么吸引力了。我被一種強(qiáng)壓在你手下的感覺折磨著......我感到很絕望"（I find myself feeling like decades have passed. I’m an old woman now, and I have lost my attraction. I’m tortured by a feeling of drowning under you… and I feel desperate.）這些文字是如此的深遠(yuǎn)，如此富有文學(xué)性，但就在一分鐘后，哀傷的管風(fēng)琴在背景中悄悄的出現(xiàn)了，聽起來像是受到了Brain Eno的“The Big Ship.”的影響。在這樣一張幾乎完全沒有傳統(tǒng)音樂元素的專輯中，這種傳統(tǒng)音樂的“闖入”卻給《The Drought》注入了一劑亟需的圣藥。

The theme picks up two songs later with the album’s centerpiece. “Red Desert” similarly presents alienation and dread in the midst of code-red atmospherics. Air-raid sirens hover while Hoffmeier sighs, “I find myself feeling like decades have passed. I’m an old woman now, and I have lost my attraction. I’m tortured by a feeling of drowning under you… and I feel desperate.” So far, so literal, but just after the one-minute mark, a mournful organ gently announces itself, sounding like a not-too-distant cousin to?Eno’s “The Big Ship.” In an album almost completely devoid of traditional musical gestures, this intrusion gives?The Drought?a much-needed dose of the holy.

但是，在到達(dá)這樣一個(gè)令人感動(dòng)的高潮之后，Hoffmeier似乎根本不愿意再讓這個(gè)高潮延續(xù)下去了。這太糟糕了，因?yàn)殡m然其后沒有人聲的曲目都令人印象深刻和有氣勢(shì)，但它們和《Red Desert》相比還是差了點(diǎn)。“Fragments of a Lily”的合成器聲就像一個(gè)患有食物中毒的嘮叨者一樣，外表喋喋不休，而身體里又劇烈攪動(dòng)。"Coagulate "閃爍著黑色金屬的冷光，而 "Slouching Uphill "則以一個(gè)逐漸升調(diào)的音符結(jié)束了這張專輯，在暴力的邊緣徘徊。但是，將《The Drought》凝聚在一起的是人聲，這些通過情緒碎片的拼貼而精心做出來的人聲使這張專輯有一種動(dòng)感和目的性。事實(shí)上，這張專輯在主題上是統(tǒng)一的，是她憑借自己的毅力而堅(jiān)持做下去的，但它也像是一張每次聽都能沉浸于其概念之中的概念專輯。在短短的幾年里，Puce Mary已經(jīng)成為噪音樂壇中最令人興奮和最有前途的人物之一?！?/span>The Drought》的冰冷強(qiáng)度和死神之眼一般的吸引力迫使你以自己的方式接近它，不過，人們感覺到Hoffmeier才剛剛正式踏上制作噪音的道路。

But having arrived at such an affecting moment, Hoffmeier seems reluctant to let it breathe. It’s too bad, because while the non-vocal tracks are uniformly impressive and powerful, they lag slightly behind. “Fragments of a Lily” churns like a gabber track with food poisoning. “Coagulate” shimmers and radiates with the cold light of black metal, and “Slouching Uphill” closes the album on an escalated note, teetering on the brink of violence. But it’s the voice that brings?The Drought?together, giving the album a sense of movement and purpose beyond a set of well-executed mood pieces. As it is, the record is thematically unified and executed with a steady, unwavering hand, but it also feels like a concept album waiting to happen. Over only a few years, Puce Mary has emerged as one of the most exciting and promising voices in noise music.?The Drought’s glacial intensity and dead-eyed focus force you to approach it on its own terms, but one senses that Hoffmeier is just getting started.

本人也翻譯了 Ertheater - IRISIRI 的Pitchfork樂評(píng)以及官網(wǎng)介紹：

?譯Pitchfork評(píng)Eartheater 2018年專輯《IRISIRI》

同時(shí)感謝@Nomanlandever的大力宣傳（我不知道電腦版怎么加表情哈哈哈哈哈哈哈）