Phobia

The first track is non-specific, and it hits the proverbial nail right on the head. An excellent introductory track, which sets the scene of this theme. The second track throws the listener into reverse and boxes you in. Polarization as such, seems very relevant, especially considering the strangeness of having a fear of having a fear. Something of a closed system, and a thoroughly engaging way of life for some people. How many, I fear to calculate! Agliohobia I assume is a typographical error, which leads me to jump to some conclusions. Fear of the English doesn't seem relevant, but then I am born an Englishman, so as with all phobias, I'm in the thick of it and judgement may be impaired somewhat?) So, that leaves me with Algophobia as another more likely option. Reasonable enough, who likes pain? Well... The masochist pleads with the sadist, "Hurt me!", and the sadist says, "No!"

I think the only fear here is really about letting the theme overrule the soundscaping. As it is, I loved the first album released by Cerebral | Dementia. The style of this artist suits my sonic sensibilities just fine. Capturing the sense of those fine, disturbing tendrils of experience and sensation, clouded by an irrational mind, full of shifting shadows of consciousness, is achieved superbly. That's what makes this artist's work exemplary, and enjoyable for this humble listener. With that, track four again, encapsulates the edginess of phobos. Nothing like a captive audience! Here the beautifully unsettling atmosphere (is that a phobia?), is peppered with the 'force' of a rhythmic entrancing. However, don't leave just yet. Anyway, all the exit doors have been locked!

Then we get down to the Greek roots. Phobia. I cannot help wondering if it would be possible to have a fear of not having a fear? Antiphobiaphobia. Little would surprise me. However, down to the track itself. Theoretically this may offer up the enquiry into fear itself. Rational or not, fear with belief becomes potent, and most often in a negative way. Fundamentally, it is about aversion. So, as has been mentioned elsewhere, the listener (at most) decides whether this sound manipulation and expression conjures up the numinous factor sufficiently. I do not believe that listening to these tracks will enable a fearless listener an insight into various fears. On the other hand, perhaps the fearful are too afraid to become embroiled in this audio experiment? Subjectivism aside, the general pitch does encourage visions of distraught humans, irrationally losing control of their functionality.

However, that might be my anthropohobia kicking in, even if 'company' seems to be somewhat lacking in this domain! This sixth track seems quite light comparatively, although living in an essentially anthropomorphic Weltanschauung, perhaps this listener is not at all equipped to make such judgements. Either way, this particular aural ingredient is as enjoyable as the others, and is quite expansive. Being on a densely populated island might not allow enough elbow room to entertain such irrationality, though some people seem to persist in the most curious of means to get from one end of the day to the other. Variety may well still be the spice of life, even if it is one terror after another. Some people live with terror everyday, and have every reason to feel fear. A global view seems to put things into perspective.

So, overall there is a sense of the purgatorial with this album and encourages me to muse on the self-generated 'hells' of 'suffering'. In that respect, this album does the trick. However, negativity (and big words) will not encourage listeners readily perhaps. Music about the masses that may be deemed unsuitable for the masses. Socialphobia strikes me as quite a different one to pin down, with so many socio-cultural changes and confusion. We live in a world where expenditure is assumed to denote 'class'. There are manifold social inequities to perfectly and rationally justify a fear of society, along with a host of other emotional reactions. As for people, the ratio seems to be something like 99.9%/00.1%.

Necrophobia is a curious, and I think very rational fear is some respects. Dead bodies are not generally conducive to good health in close quarters, and they tend to get a bit smelly anyway. Which leaves the fear of dying. I can only see one way to get over that, and there is no return ticket on that journey. A fear of the inescapable fate of the human organism. Interestingly, the more one thinks about phobias, the more ridiculous they seem to get, stretching tolerability to the limits. And, this far into the album, there appears to be more repetition, a sense that we have been here before.

In a hypothetical sense, Autophobia, really completes and rounds off this album of 'fearful symmetry'. Self-hatred (even extended to the social group therein) is perhaps something of a foundation to all phobias. Any fear extended, expressed, experienced, comes from within. So, autophobia seems almost to be a prerequisite for any other type of undue fear. Without good reason it all falls to pieces, justification in terms of proof becomes tenuous. A general sense of fear resides within and particularizes itself with a 'subject' to focus the psychosomatic concerns. Can a person who knows no fear have a phobia? Does a person who is generally fearful, inevitably fall into the trap of subjectifying fear to its closest convenient emergence?

I have tried to capture the essence of this review with the title anaskóphobia. Bad Greek wordplay, but review comes from the French 'revoir', and the best I could come up with was the Latin 'video', which is about what you view. I surmised that 'videophobia' would not capture the essence of what I am saying. I endeavour to create a partnership with the artist, in writing a review worth reading while a subsequent listener is listening. Anaskóphobia is what I have been going through, with such lofty ideals that what I write might be entertaining/interesting enough, and a fear of failure in such a particular task. Please, do not be afraid of correcting my undue concerns. In a thousand years, who's going to care?

No need to list the varied phobias, but the tunes associated with some of them do fit. The fear of everything would keep a person from even hearing the first track!

An intriquing concept, to say the least. To put music to a fear would make one draw on personal experience on at least one of the mentioned fears. I'll leave it up to the rest of the listeners to make their own decision which tune best represents the author...

Não há necessidade de a lista de fobias variadas, mas as músicas associadas com algumas delas se encaixam. O medo de tudo se manter uma pessoa até mesmo ouvir a primeira faixa! Um conceito intrigante, para dizer o mínimo. Para colocar a música para um medo faria um empate em sua experiência pessoal em pelo menos um dos temores mencionados. Vou deixar isso para o resto dos ouvintes a fazer sua própria decisão que melhor representa a música do autor ...
[Roughly translated]