VENERA

In a moderately unexpected turn of events, KORN guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer has thrown himself wholeheartedly into the shadowy world of experimental electronic music. A collaboration with US composer and filmmaker Chris Hunt, VENERA switches Munky's focus from his day job's unpredictable but relentless riffing to something much less tangible or easily defined. The fact that this is being released via Mike Patton's IPECAC imprint should tell curious listeners all they need to know about where this sits on the accessibility spectrum.

"Venera" is a strange, dark and often bewildering record that bears little resemblance to anything KORN have done over the last 30 years, while also tapping into a very contemporary strain of cross-pollinated abandon. As weird and grim as it frequently is, this is the sound of Munky having fun.

It begins with "Alignment": a sustained torrent of fracture noise, disembodied distortion, and pitch-black, shimmering atmospherics. There is a hint of old-school industrial legends COIL and maybe an accidental nod or two to THE HAXAN CLOAK's warped, dubbed-out electronica, but VENERA is so clearly driven by spontaneity that the duo's hazily defined sonic environment is rapidly established. "Erosion" is a stuttering, percussive thing, underpinned by the maxed-out throb of abused technologies, and peppered with alien clanks and bangs. There is even a faint trace of melody seeping through the electronic façade, albeit largely drowned out by swelling bass and glitchy beats. "Ochre" features the talents of much-hyped mavericks HEALTH, whose quavering vocals infiltrate VENERA's glacial and soporific hip-hop beats, resulting in an unnerving, slow-motion storm of shapeshifting dread. In comparison, "Swarm" offers a pointedly freeform splurge of bilious, subsonic synths and spectral white noise, evoking cult horror movie vibes for the sheer hell of it.

Disorientating collisions between the darkly ambient and the inhuman crunch of souped-up machines are VENERA's stock-in-trade, and on "Disintegration" they push that methodology to its limits, veering from ominous, amorphous start to wayward tempos and surging, bass-heavy scree. On the skewed but palpably more conventional songcraft of "Hologram", Australian industrial rock mob VOWWS bring a slender, human touch to bear on Munky and Hunt's tense, electro surrealism, which drifts gently but purposefully into DAVID LYNCH territory, hinting at unseen horrors. The flipside to that creepy mirage, "Surrender" glides along at a stately pace, with askance chords blending together over waves of ghostly clangor.

Even more startling is "Triangle", wherein QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE alumnus Alain Johannes emerges from VENERA's sonic soup, delivering an exquisitely pained and pathos-drenched vocal mantra. The closest thing this album has to a conventional song, it is still profoundly weird. The closing "Helium" is another hypnotic, droning barrage of keyboards and wild static, and the perfect way to drift back into some form of normality. As with everything else here, it is definitely not what one would expect from the man behind "Blind" and "Twisted Transistor". VENERA is its own beast, and the duo's huge potential and limitless remit are obvious and admirable.