Please note that this post is about the musician, not the Sailor Moon villain. Though the latter looks pretty scary (not to mention really groovy), so they probably have a lot in common.
Few people are capable of making incoherent keening subtle, but Pharmakon somehow manages it. I love subtlety (to the point of unholy obsession) and because of that, quiet music is really more my thing, but I do also have a fondness for harsh and inhuman noise, as long as it’s in moderation. And when I am in the mood for something like that, Pharmakon is usually one of the artists I listen to. Real name Margaret Chardiet (which hopefully rhymes), Pharmakon’s music is easily as impressive as that of older bands like Einsturzende Neubauten, and it even makes fellow screamer Diamanda Galas sound almost nonthreatening in comparison. She rarely reaches the point of unintentional silliness (which can be hard to retreat from, and if crossed should probably be embraced), because her harshness is kept low and in some ways restrained. Listening to her is similar to hearing someone mutter under their breath in an industrial estate, only they’re not muttering at all, they’re screeching. It’s power electronics, but not in an obnoxious sort of way.
Pharmakon seems to know how to lose control without losing total control. In fact, this seems to be part of what makes her unique. She practices her craft, with a clear purpose to her abstraction. Nothing she makes seems like throwaway noise for the sake of pissing off people, but rather for the sake of atonal perfection. It’s actually thought-provoking, not some shock vomit drivel. This aspect to her music is partly why I like her so much, but in other ways it’s different from what I usually favour. Pharmakon has a certain organic quality, kind of like body horror in aural form. This primal element is an interesting contrast to the sense of precision that Sacred Bones describes her as having, and it’s this that I wouldn’t be too familiar with in music. I’m fascinated by art that expresses its humanity in a cold and detached (maybe even clinical) way, so Pharmakon’s visceral quality is slightly out of my comfort zone. Still, it’s difficult not to like anything about Pharmakon’s work. From the videos and photos I’ve seen of her performances, she really seems to become the songs, with her long blond hair obscuring her face so as to make her resemble some sort of looming building.
