Wapstan "Vingt-Cinq" CD
[Brise-Cul]
The latest EP from this Canadian dark ambient project includes one mammoth 25-minute track, titled simply "Vingt-Cinq" (French for "twenty-five"), recorded on February 25, 2005 on Wapstan mastermind Martin Sasseville's 25th birthday.  The release is also limited to just 50 copies - or, as the label puts it, "25 x 2".  If you see a numeric theme developing, good for you, but that really has nothing to do with the subtle and ominous characteristics that make up the track.  Expect a very consistent and slow moving set of minimal low-end drones with a lot of deep resonance and very light hints of melody at times, with some shuffling textures fading into the very faint distance.  Admittedly there's quite little variation, but that makes no difference here, as the consistency allows for an effectively hypnotic journey that never feels the least bit dull.  Around 15 minutes in there's some warbled movement that I'm not all that fond of since it clashes a bit with the very controlled and simplistic sensibilities explored throughout the rest of the track.  But thankfully that snippet quickly subsides and things slide back into a really bass heavy rumble that carries on for the next several minutes.  The final four minutes are a little more ethereal and definitely seem to increase the level of ominous atmosphere that's going on, which I'm definitely a fan of.  Overall there's not too much to say about this one though, simply because it's a cascading wave of drones that remains steadfast in very large part.  The recording feels ever so slightly dirty to me, but I kind of like that type of aesthetic.  I think a little more of a fluid roundness could help bring out the suffocating power to be found within this work (as perhaps a solid mastering job could do in boosting the output levels), but I'm fairly satisfied with it as is.  Like prior work from Wapstan the imagery is just icy landscapes, with the disc housed in a stiff xeroxed sleeve that has minimal text information.  I still think Brise-Cul needs to step up the presentation of their releases a bit, as this is a really solid track that deserves something a little more artistic as a visual accompaniment (the way the disc face has the number 25 written on it in purple paint, for example, is somewhat tacky and makes little sense), but nonetheless this is another strong offering from Wapstan.  I'll look forward to hearing more. (7/10)
Running time - 25:00, Tracks: 1
[Notable tracks: there's only one]
Brise-Cul Records - http://brise-cul-records.cjb.net

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