My defining memory of seeing Samekhmem perform was the second time I saw them; I had some idea of what to expect but nothing prepared me for their rendition of the track which I was later to discover was titled Ouroboros VII.
Starting with a subliminal pulsing drone the room shook and trembled. Gradually a piercing fuzz became audible, whipping around the room and in and out of focus. Something like a Shepard tone seemed to rise and fall at the same time, infinitely. People all around me in the crowd were sinking to their knees, clutching their ears or clawing at their faces. I stood transfixed, brain reeling, the dimensions of the room indefinable and changing. Suddenly spastic rhythms collapsed into the space, relentless and slippery, the floor felt to be rising and pulsing. Almost silence, then a sudden Leviathan scream, disembodied agonised voices.
I don't remember how I got out, how I got home. Rumours that the air had been spiked ran in the underground press. I've had a skin condition ever since.
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