Concrete Violin & Fever Spoor "À Rebours" CD
[Brise-Cul]
This lengthy collaborative effort sees Concrete Violin (Texas) and Fever Spoor (Holland) teaming up with an homage to French author Joris-Karl Huysmans (who also wrote a book called "À Rebours"), consisting of 10 tracks ranging from less than three minutes to more than 10 minutes, covering ground from raw harsh noise to sinister dark ambient textures.  Admittedly the material is a shitload better than the packaging would suggest.  The CD-R comes in a black and white sleeve with tolerable artwork, yet the illustrations are very crude and almost childlike.  The presentation itself, while not great, doesn't look too bad, but it's certainly not as intriguing as the music, nor is it very suggestive of what sounds await you.  There are definitely some tracks that hit on a mildly lo-fi sort of rugged harsh attack that persists from start to finish with dirty midrange distortion and low-end throbs that have some added detail in their midst, but some of these pieces never really drop back to allow enough breathing room for much of that detail to show through.  These tracks aren't bad, but when things hit around six to seven minutes or more it can become rather tiresome.  Odd synth melodies and whispered vocals even appear in "Finally Unconsciousness", making for a brief piece that comes as a surprise and certainly stands apart as something different here.  Spoken vocals play a larger role in "Prostituée de l'Apocalypse" over some percussive textures and eerie surges, but I'm not really into the vocals since they seem sort of plain and uninteresting to me.  It's the more atmospheric tracks that really leave a mark with this one, I'd say.  For example, opener "Won't Beg for a Place in Heaven" is by far the best track, immediately opening on a very sinister note with dingily distorted low-end rumbles and a generally more ominous aesthetic with a bit less volume filling the space.  And "Discomposing Afresh His Ruined Nerves" is more restrained and repetitious, relying on sweeping midrange textures with brighter highs in the distance.  The two 10-minute tracks, "Incapable of Grappling With Contemporary Life" and "The Choice is Made", are similar in their use of middleground repetition - becoming almost hypnotic in their focus on midgrade distortion and minimal movement.  Despite being rather long, these two tracks are among the more effective herein, however.  Therefore it becomes the harsher pieces that, while not bad, are just less interesting or curious in their stagnancy.  Overall I'm not completely won over by this collection of material, but I have to say that the end result is stronger and more atmospheric than I had anticipated, which comes as a welcome surprise.  I think less discerning fans will be more interested in this than I, as there are some very nice selections within.  It's not the best thing I've heard from Brise-Cul, but it does still point to a rise in the quality of the label's output regardless. (6/10)
Running time - 63:14, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Won't Beg for a Place in Heaven, Incapable of Grappling With Contemporary Life, Discomposing Afresh His Ruined Nerves, The Choice is Made]
Brise-Cul Records - http://brise-cul-records.cjb.net

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