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Vomir - pour monsieur Jean ou l'amour absolu (Crisis Records)

A cassette release, the first on Julien Héraud's new label, 23 minutes of uncompromising noise. Vomir (Romain Perrot) has stated, "My dedication is to no dynamics, no change, no development, no ideas. Total static harsh noise, crusting, crushing, crackling.” Fair enough and true to his word. I think the lack of dynmaic change makes the difference here. In my reasonably limited encounters with the pure noise scene, I've found far too much of a rock sensibility for my taste, a machismo that almost necessarily includes orgasmic crescendi. Here, Vomir begins at a high intensity level, as rough a slab of electric hardscrabble as you're likely to hear, and simply stays there. You tend to search, and quite possibly invent, sound buried deep in the maelstrom, sounds that shift or progress, something I imagine Perrot would rather you didn't. Experiencing it in situ would doubtless be a better option, though I'm guessing it wouldn't be too different from a Francisco Lopez-type experience (checking images online, I see audiences with gray plastic bags on their heads instead of blindfolds). Well done and resolute if not the world-shattering event Vomir has in mind.

Crisis Records

Inside/Outside - Rooms

(disclosure: Don Campau is the gentleman who asked me to host my radio podcast at KWTF. Do check it out, KWTF--airs three times on Mondays)

This is the duo of Russell Leach (synths, percussion, etc.) and Don Campau (guitar, bass guitar, field recordings, electronics, etc.), here presenting thirteen tracks, twelve of which include single guest musicians (Susan Alcorn, pedal steel; Mike Khoury, viola, tambura; James Hill, trumpet; Kyle Bruckmann, oboe, analog electronics; Amy Denio, voice; Bryan Day, invented instruments; Tom Djll, trumpet, toy megaphone; Anna Zaradny, alto sax; Al Margolis, manipulations; Jon Raskin, electronic berimbau; Eric Glick rieman, prepared Rhodes electric piano; Robin O'Brien, voice). I'd previously heard Campau on several tracks among a mass of Hal McGee recordings I received a few years back; wasn't crazy about most of it but Campau's contributions stood out. Here, the pieces, while strung together as a kind of suite (rooms), wander all over the place though they're generally of a gentle demeanor, couched in comfortable, if sometimes wacky electronics. My preferences run toward the more song-based tracks, not so much the freer ones, including a lovely country-jazz lilt with Alcorn, a funky Jon Hassell/Cherry with Codona number featuring Hill, a charming song with Denio, a jaunty thing with Djill that has echoes of Byrne/Eno, the duo's own "solo" piece, and the closing track, a lush and somber, Gaelic-tinged, with O'Brian. A fun mélange, go wallow.

Bandcamp site