UTON “Live In Death” (Bread and Animals)

Everything I had heard by this band previously was deeply vague, hushed, Finnish intimacy. So I wasn’t prepared for this. A paint-soaked 1-sided CS collecting 3 wild live recordings from shows in France and…somewhere else (the writing/info is mainly illegible), Live In Death finds Uton in a far more fucked and confrontational headspace. The “Live in Paris” jam builds from standard Fonal-style post-folk clatter into a racing, ritual frenzy dense with electric menace and group death focus. Easily the single most powerful Uton recording I’ve ever heard. The second piece, “Live in Reims,” is even more fried and wigged-out, with freaky exorcism vocal convulsions and shuddering tonal meltdowns. In person, this must’ve KILLED. Senselessly, the insert is covered with elementary school squirrels nibbling on nuts. Oh, Lieven.