Year: 2025
Label: Zoharum

Ever active UK act Rapoon are at it again, this time with colleagues Pas Musique from the other side of the Atlantic. It’s the first time we cover a joint effort by them, but the two groups have released several collaborative albums to date.

Being a double CD album, totalling in 90 minutes of music, it is self-evident that this is a massive thing to tackle. In some ways, far more massive than its thirteen track, 90 minute running time would suggest.

The reason for this is basically rather simple. Taking the form of ambient and experimental electronica, apparently with plenty of improvised sections, Knowledge Has No Enemies But The Ignorant just isn’t easy listening. Though understated and minimalist in form, this is one of those albums that demand a lot from the listener. More than just tenacity.

Labeling this ambient is misleading. True enough, there are ambient passages, and a certain ambient-like shape is present in many tracks, but this is far too active music, so to speak. Not necessarily as in conventional melodies and song structures, but in elements that engage the listener and refuse to remain unintrusive background elements.

A lot of the album is based on repeating, looping sonic elements. This method is utilized both in background layers and the prominent “hook” layers, if they can be called such. This can make for some aggravating listening, because, quite simply, sometimes the rather brief and prolonged loops jar in the listener’s head like a migraine.

Sonically, however, the album is definitely not cut from one cloth. There are more ambient tracks, tracks with retro synth sounds that wouldn’t be out of place on a dungeon synth album, chopped and looped samples of real instruments – a horn riff repeats infuriatingly on Wastebasket Blues – and so on. A certain mysterious atmosphere, sometimes leaning towards darker hues, permeates the album, but as a whole the two-disc set cannot be called dark or somber.

I suppose it’s safe to say it takes a certain kind of person to enjoy this music. Someone who embraces structural minimalism and revels in repeating, repetitive elements. Someone who finds excitement in the prospect of being caught in a looping musical rut.

I’m not that guy. Knowledge Has No Enemies But The Ignorant contains interesting and engaging sections, but many of them are then repeated time and time again until I am overcome with frustration. I must admit: I don’t enjoy listening to this album.

But, having said that, obviously this cannot be dismissed as a hack work. the duo of Rapoon and Pas Musique know what they are doing, and have confidence in their chosen approach. I don’t like it, but maybe you will?

Visit Rapoon on their official website, Bandcamp or Facebook
Visit Pas Musique on their official website, Bandcamp or Facebook