At the speed of a dirge or a march of the dead across a netherworld of convenience store carparks, this track clonks along with menace and dread, sumptuous percussion marking time, unfathomable threats looming at the sidelines and cheering the procession on ghoulishly, the sheen of villainous majesty and baroque solemnity aloof and alive in the wide organ chords that soar down like eagles with talons poised and ready to snatch away and shred—in this sense quite Bowser-esque, sounding very much like the Castle Theme from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The dusty tones of the organ and their funereal yet triumphal atmosphere works in partnership with the constant brutal buzz that EPROM lays down as a foundation in this one, a gothic tale with arabesque twists, a 19th century wandflick of macabre mixed with merciless modern bass distortion.
'Koummya' refers to a curved dagger traditional to the Atlas region of southern Morocco—often ornately decorated, always with a peacock tail-shaped end to the hilt, these were as much a part of traditional dress as they were intended to incapacitate and kill. Similarly, EPROM's track is as decorative – the breathy flourishes at the beginning of the track, phantomatic and nightmarish, the glittering intoxicated waves of golden sound like blankets of cut gemstones, the "yeah" sample – as it is harrowing: that sludgy bass, the needling crescendos, the inescapable unrelenting swirl of its crushed abrasive sounds. A perfect soundscape, dreadful and awesome, terrible to behold, daunting and gratifying, breathtaking noise with a purpose, destroyer and yet destroyed: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
- π The marvellous 'Koummya' is taken from EPROM's Pineapple EP, which is out now and which can be downloaded and streamed variously. The five-track EP includes an official remix of the title track 'Pineapple' by G JONES.
- π Australian artist Jonathan Zawada created the exquisiteglistening 3D artwork for the EP, combining its namesake – a pineapple ring – with a gem-like cherry complete with tongue-tied stem, a scraggle of barbed wire and an extra-long and rather barbarous-looking dagger. Intangible, abstract and decorative at the same time as exuding an imminent sense of simultaneous unpredictable danger and fun, the artwork, like a twisted crest, is a perfect fit for the big, experimental, spike-laden sound of EPROM. Zawada has also made artwork for the likes of Flume, Baauer and Mark Pritchard.
- π The San Fran-originated Portland-based musicmaker is named after EPROM, erasable programmable read-only memory, "a type of memory chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off." (Wikipedia).
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