Pharmakon was suggested to me by Last.fm. Based on the project name I guessed it would be dark ambient. Then I went to see if Deezer had anything of this project and the covers of both albums more looked like indierock to me (also the cover of “Bestial Burden” looks sweet on a small screen). Neither is true! “Bestial Burden” opens with a breathing lady with some ambient tunes on the background. This takes a bit too long, but after this it becomes clear that the breathing lady of the first track is not a sample, but the artist. Pharmakon is a ladies-noise/industrial project! You probably would not say that she makes pretty extreme music when you would meet Margaret Chardiet on the street. Music wise she goes from earcracking noise with dramatically screamed vocals to (Sistrenatus like) ritualistic industrial and more downright industrial sounds. I prefer the tracks in which Chardiet uses her voice in another way than for screaming, but I can say that this is quite varried and at times very nice noise.
The label, Sacred Bones, is interesting to have a closer look at too. I noticed that shoegazers Led Er Est, the electropunkers of Cult Of Youth, the noise rockers of Factums and even famous people like David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch are part of their roster.
Links: Pharmakon, Sacred Bones Records