Gomme – Hiss (2017)

Moncul

Black Totem

• Punk rock 
• Indie rock 
• Riot grrrl 
• Angst rock
• Alternative rock 
• Post-punk

Comment: Gomme comes out of France by playing rough punk rock/post-punk/alternative rock. It can be considered riot grrrl because the combo embraces three women (Betsy, Lauren, and Hannah). Hopefully I can describe them as women. Maybe I am a chauvinist schwein because of employing this word. However, I really hope I am not. I like many moments within this 10-track outing. There is a German sung composition Gott ist Tot. It is obviously a reference to Friedrich Nietzsche although I am quite sure today Nietzsche would have said today Gott ist nicht tot because the recent society and weltanschauung is not a place to foster genuine heroes. The recent human being is way too weak and fragile and enslaved by machines he/she has him/herself created. Because of being so weak and fragile and practising a parasitic lifestyle he/she cannot consider him/herself a God. It comes the time when we need the genuine God more than we have ever needed. Secondly there is a powerful cover song of Kate Bush`s Wuthering Heights. I like the trio`s straightforward gear mostly played on a guitar, a bass, and the drums (at times the instruments are accompanied by synthesised sounds either). At times the tuning of the guitars is turned down and thereby emitting sounds out there of coming very close to doom rock riffs. At times the guitars are changed into cellophane tuning and millennium-ending anxiety thereby getting an alternative rock combo a la Sonic Youth. I can say Gomme rock very well though the favourite female rock combo of mine is still Electrelane. The issue is a part of the discographies of such labels as Moncul, and Black Totem Records.

Besoin Dead - Pair, tu n'es pas Impair (2015)

Et Mon Cul C`Est Du Tofu?

Bandcamp

/Experimental rock, Indie rock, Psych-rock, No Wave, Alternative rock, Art punk, Avant-punk/

Comment: I think anyone who considers himself/herself a music friend should listen to the oeuvre of Besoin Dead. Certainly he/she should see him in live. Although I have never attended the Frenchman Pascal Benvenuti`s gigs I guess it is something of a madman`s show by making decision after having watched some videos and pictures to his performances. Benvenuti ordinarily sits in front of the drums and a guitar which is differently prepared as it usually used to be and ready to be handled like a percussive instrument. It is amazing how the aforementioned set is enough to produce sustained, articulated noises in the vein of artsy punk/indie rock. Although Benvenuti`s approach with regard to his outer and inner side might remind of Sonic Youth and some other No Wave related combos the artist`s touch is idiosyncratic in the right manner to watch them apart from each other. Furthermore, Besoin Dead`s sound is deeply permeated with anxiety and aggressiveness to depict his loneliness and despairing senses (the best example is Papa Bunker). There are up some sonic exceptions either – for instance, Le répondeur du Blond which consists of the voice of a man sitting on the phone and short-running signals coming in every five seconds thereby being the strange counterpoint to it. Pascal Depression rings like the light-weighted sort of doom rock. Many tracks start off like a sort of contemporary tribal music with bare rhythmic imitations saturated with echoes and reverberations. Get stoned!

Radikal Satan - El Incendio Que Se Llevó A La Ciudad (2012)

Radikal Satan

Moncul

/Dark pop, Neoclassical, Gothic pop, Musique concrète, Leftfield, Art pop, Experimental pop, Darkwave, Tango, Avant-pop/

Comment: Radikal Satan is the project of César Amarante, and Mauricio Amarante whose 11-track issue reflects upon their cultural backdrops being related to Argentina, France, and New York. The bunch has been managed in a way to bring forth elaborate, dark-hued pop songs with many threads of tango twists, gothic synthesised upper templates, vivid guitar chords, and Parisian street sounds based on lofty accordion sounds. At times these notches of the sonic backbone are variegated with mixed warped spoken word snippets and concrete sounds (for instance, Exilio en el Exilio) or songs are saturated with excruciated, psychotic vocal deliveries. And those half-orchestrated noises and ominous progressions surfacing here and there used to hit your conscious mind. Behind those visible figures you could perceive shades coming out from the other side and on the other side it arouses your brain to cast aside the control over your unconscious mind. However, the issue is saturated with more elements than discovered above. Yesterday I reviewed Faerùn`s album The Night (2013, Test Tube) which provides a quite similar approach both ideologically and sonically because of recruiting an avant-garde sonic palette to exert it for creating music in conjunction with pop songs formulas. Similarly, both albums are murkily full-fledged yet somehow recognizable and intimate ones. In a word, the output is both intimidating and mesmerizing. Call me morbid, call me pale but I feel myself totally satisfied.