TAU is the collective brainchild of Dubliner, Shaun Mulrooney. Shaun is perhaps best known for his involvement with the Dead Skeletons and as the “Invisible Man” with Camera.
TAU’s ‘Medicine Music’ was envisioned during a Mulrooney sojourn in Mexico with the Wixárikas, an ancient shamanic tribe whose culture and mythology is immersed in peyote lore.
This music was given substance courtesy of Mulrooney’s alliance with multi-instrumentalist, Cristoph “Tiger” Bartlett of Kadaver, whilst holed up in their Berlin studio.
The 4 track EP title ‘Wirikuta’, derives from the Wixárikas’ sacred site, high in the mountains of central Mexico where their mythology believes the world was born, where the sun or Tau made it’s first appearance.
EP opener ‘Huey Tonantzin’, sees TAU resurrect and breathe renewed rhythmic life into this ancient Aztec prayer, “IPALNEMOHUANI, (we´re all one, unity), INOYOLOTL TATZIN, (heart on vibration), TLAZOKAMATLI, (I love you, thank you), TONANTZIN, (Mother Earth), HUEY TONANTZIN(GREAT MOTHER EARTH)”.
‘A Wink To The Elements’, weaves it’s subtle ouroboros and lobo dreamscape sorcery, a rattlesnake shake, magic carpet guitar ride…
The video for ‘A Wink To The Elements’ is a richly textured, symbolic visual feast, featuring the Wixárikas’ spiritual elements of the deer and the corn plant – invoked during the ritual quest for the hikuli…
‘The Trickster’, delivers a slice of Camera-esque krautrock flavour, it’s descending atonal scale underpinned by a relentless moto(t)rik(ster) beat.
Closing track, ‘Reunar’, heralds a dungchen-like intro, yielding to a galloping, anthemic layering of melodic instrumental and vocal riffs, before climaxing with the eponymous chant of “Wiri-wiri-kuta”…
‘Wirikuta’ is a spirit raising, mescaline fuelled, sonic primordial shamanic odyssey, of epic proportions.
The Wixárikas’ shamanic culture is among the purest and least acculturated in Mesoamerica, with unbroken roots stretching into an archaic past. A way of life we would do well to learn from, “they are the original psychedelia”…
‘Wirikuta’, is available now in 10” EP format on transparent blue vinyl, limited to 400 copies via the Fuzz Club Records Store.
See more from Chromaticism here
1 comment