Foutredieu!!! "A-402 (My Own Prison)" CD
[Brise-Cul]
Canada's Foutredieu!!! takes another significant step forward with this, their third foray into experimental noise. Like their last release the material seems a bit more pointed and mature, and the tracks are also noticeably shorter, some running less than a minute. All of the tracks are untitled, falling under the heading of "A-402 (My Own Prison)", aside from "Balade" - which is called a "bonus track" (it consists of programmed beats and altered French vocals, so I'm not really sure what that's all about). Of the "A-402..." tracks, the opener is one of the few distinctly ambient tracks. It's followed closely by a harsh and loud piece that is slightly typical in its use of distortion and earsplitting treble, but not your usual wall of thick noise. The fourth track is a good example of an excellent harsh composition, because it's got the grating high-pitched squeals and some painful distortion going on, but it's a minimal structure, balanced out nicely by some midrange feedback hums. Midway through the disc track six offers a nice sort of death industrial soundscape. An almost subtle melody creeps into the distance beneath some midrange distortion that sort of swells back and forth. The tenth and final track of the "A-402..." series runs a whopping eight minutes - by far the longest track on the entire disc, it definitely leans toward the dark ambient side of things atmospherically. There are lots of low tones, it's very light on the distortion... fairly menacing, especially the little loop in the background, which is slightly musical. One thing that I don't like is that most of the tracks just cut to a close at the end. It's just like a long piece was chopped short for no apparent reason, there's no flow from piece to piece or logical ending to each song, which confuses me a bit since the first ten track all fall under the same group title. The recording isn't bad, but I think things would sound more powerful with more high-end and more low-end. Right now things are relatively clear but most of the tones feel like they're inching towards the middle rather than covering a wide range. The packaging is a definite step up from previous Foutredieu!!! releases as well. Everything is still black and white xeroxes, but the images are a bit clearer, the layout a bit cleaner, and the visuals/text applicable to the concept of the release. The CD-R comes in a slipcase where the front and back covers show a prison wall with an armed guard looking into the distance, and inside there is a tiny booklet with a small photo of prisoners, some contact information, and a few lines of text such as, "Smash the walls of your own prisons..." Not bad overall. It's nice to see that the project has been consistently developing with each release. I hope that trend continues... (6/10)
Running time - 30:34, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: all are untitled]
Brise-Cul Records - http://www.brise-cul-records.cjb.net

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