Smote - Genog '2023

Tracks list

Transcendence through repetition beamed via an aesthetic vision steeped in
mystery: welcome to the world of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Smote, an entity
opening up uncanny new psychic pathways.
‘Genog’ - the outfit’s second release on Rocket Recordings
following 2021’s eerie transmission ‘Drommon’, shows that
Smote’s elliptical casting of bleak magick is only growing more powerful
as it gathers momentum.

The brainchild of Daniel Foggin, Smote has evolved seemingly of
it’s own volition. “I had the idea for years” he relates,
“I love
Pärson Sound, Träd, Gräs Och Stenar, Traditional Irish Folk and
all sorts of different Drone and Folk music. It was simply finding the
opportunity to sit down and get recording. A very heavy influence that affects
Smote is fantasy as a genre, and the atmosphere that can be created via
story-telling.”

The five vivid extrapolations on Genog conjure differing spiritual realms, yet
the verdant flute-and-drum-driven ‘Fenhop’, the resonant, cryptic
‘Hlaf’ and the overwhelming noise-driven intensity of the closing
freakout ‘Banhus’ combine and coalesce to offer one
unified vision, building furious momentum in a manner that unites
the pastoral with the arcane and otherworldy.

The musical approach of Smote may have started out as a resolutely DIY one, yet
from the humble origins of bedroom and rehearsal room recordings, the band has
now become a full-fledged and powerful live band, whose appearances at festivals
like Roadburn, Le Guess Who and Brave Exhibitions have already caused a
considerable
stir. Testimony, indeed to the kind of spectacular mental vistas and towering,
intimidating sound-worlds which are made manifest on Genog.

“I love world building and folk tales” adds Foggin, who cites the
2013 film ‘Hard To Be A God’ as the single biggest influence on
Smote’s aesthetic - “An incredible example of mood and atmosphere
throughout, an absolute masterpiece.” True to form, perhaps the
centrepiece of Genog is the mighty ‘Lof’. Driven by an ominous and
bewitching central riff, this totem of monomania transcends its post-Velvets,
folk and ‘70s Swedish Psych influences to thunder forth singularly akin to
a ceremonial procession from a place as enigmatic and daunting as the the
quasi-medieval pandemonium of the same film.

Inhabiting a landscape where pursuit of the psychedelic is so often hampered by
cliche, mannerism and the canonical rulebook. It can be rare to witness a
visionary doggedly pursuing their own crooked and idiosyncratic path into the
mystic with few co-ordinates apparent. This is where Smote come in. Earthy,
ritualistic and richly cinematic in aspect, Genog is an avatar guiding the
listener to dark and beguiling imaginary landscapes.



1.01 - Smote - Genog (10:32)
1.02 - Smote - Hlaf (6:48)
1.03 - Smote - Fenhop (5:05)
1.04 - Smote - Lof (9:59)
1.05 - Smote - Banhus (10:56)

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