Foutredieu!!!/Iversen "Split" CD
[Brise-Cul]
Always unpredictable, Foutredieu!!! opens this split with three long tracks of experimental noise inspired by the Doom video game. "IDDQD" opens somewhat softly but quickly plows into a resonant meshing of distortion layered under a windy sort of white noise hiss. Four minutes in it starts to calm down a little, panning the white noise to the side while an eerie squeal fills some of the silence below. For the duration of its 11 minutes things ebb and flow in volume with faintly distorted hums and dense layering, actually making up my favorite part of the composition. "IDKFA" follows at 10 more minutes, opening with some pristine minimal drones that are both thick with low-end and bright with piercing highs, creating a strangely melodic sort of feedback interaction that reminds me of Foutredieu!!! side project Wapstan a bit. The entirety of the track carries on in this way, making the explosive harsh noise and distorted vocal screams of "IDBEHOLD" come at you that much harder - totally unexpected! The vocals are mixed deep in against the other sounds so they're not overly prominent, eventually passing things off to a subtly melodic low-end undercurrent. Gradually things get a bit more garbled and fucked up as these ambient sounds carry on, passing seven minutes and getting excruciatingly harsh again soon afterwards to close the final minute or two. Iversen follows with two even longer selections, first the ambient minimalism of "Caligula Symphony Q", with lots of atmospheric ambience and harsher, grating background sounds. It's a pretty consistent track that flows well and changes only minimally throughout its duration, with no great jolts or surprises. "Caligula Symphony R" closes and is a bit harsher at times, though similar in structure and flow... for a massive 22 minutes! It's quite minimal, but does use some well-textured distortion against thicker and more ambient styled soundscapes. These two cuts are certainly not very active listening experiences, working better as background noise in some ways, but still not bad considering. I enjoy this work more than the bulk of what I've heard from the project. The CD-R comes in a black and white sleeve with sort of a rough print job and abstract artwork that I can't really make out. The tracklist is on the back and all of the text is bold and simple, so there's not much to it. It looks decent, I've seen much worse, though honestly the packaging on Brise-Cul releases is really starting to be the one factor that sort of holds back increasingly quality audio releases. A stronger visual aesthetic would really increase the appeal of this music, and the work deserves that. This is enjoyable material all around. All three Foutredieu!!! tracks are very cool, and Iversen makes a good showing as well (granted "Caligula Symphony R" lacks a bit of its predecessor's force and wears thin with its length in mind). Worth looking into... this is a long one. (7/10)
Running time - 70:17, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: IDKFA, Caligula Symphony Q]
Brise-Cul Records - http://brise-cul-records.cjb.net

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