Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Marc Behrens - Sleppet [Crónica - 2009]

German born sound & concrete electronic artist Marc Behrens offers up here a collection of surreal, strange & at times jarring & noisy tracks built around manipulated field recordings, computer composition & subtle electronic elements that at times brings to mind Nurse With Wounds more field recording based & unhinged work.

All the basic field recordings that make up ‘Sleppet’ where recorded in various locations across Norway & mostly in isolated & people-less places which gives the whole album quite a remote, isolated & at times ‘panicked I’m lost in the middle of nowhere feel’. Only the last track 'Sheep & Industry' really brings in more man-made sounds & textures to the mix. 

First up we have ‘Seagulls & cattle’ which finds Behrens at his most unhinged, jarring & strange. The track starts out with just layers of mournful seagull calls, but with-in half a minute theses smashed into by this jarring, noisy & shrieking tone that sounds like a pterodactyl swooping down to get you; but I presume this is the seagull cries feed through electronics & computers. On top of this shirking mayhem, which seems to be coming in from all angles, is the normal seagull tones carry on along with a very strong & ripping wind tone which I guess could suggest your in the claws of the pterodactyl & are been flown off to it’s nest. There’s also this creaking & bowing electro tone which at times gets quite jarring. Mid-way through the track turns it’s intent more towards a nightmarish slaughter house  type vibe as Behrens adds in what could be pig grunts, then brooding junk metal movement over sour & unwell electro tone swoops & falls. All told a very effective & nightmarish slice of sound scaping.

Later on with ‘Glaceier’ Behrens takes field recordings from Brenndalsbreen Glacier on the island of Utvær and makes them into a very nervous, jumpy & at times soothing track. He mixes: creaking & breaking ice, water drips & sudden avalanches of broken off ice weight falling into water.  And lastly we have ‘Sheep and industry’ which is certainly the noisiest &  most jarring of the four tracks here & it finds Behrens building a shifting & jarring soundscape from: grinding metal to metal groans, sears & bellows, ominous wind creaking tones, stretched barring tones which might once have been sheep noises and a healthy dose of stretching & twisting electro buzzing, bending & sicklily droning electronics.

‘Sleppet’ certainly isn’t a laid back or subtle field recording based album you could put on as moody background setting- it shouts & bash you around the head for your full attention & concentration. It shows Behrens as a master of edgy, jarring & unhinged sonic juxtaposition, but also as a very effective alien mood setter & at times a creative noise maker too.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Marc Behrens - Sleppet
German born sound & concrete electronic artist Marc Behrens offers up here a collection of surreal, strange & at times jarring & noisy tracks bui...
060625   Hawkwind - There Is No Space ...
060625   Home Service - A Live Transm...
060625   Fabien Lévy - De l'art d'in...
060625   Evis Sammoutis - Atrapós
050625   Night Of The Felines - Night ...
050625   Bad Channels - Bad Channels( ...
050625   DAS B. - Love
050625   Visceral: Between the Ropes o...
050625   The Iron Rose - The Iron Ros...
040625   Nikos Veliotis/ Alex Zethson ...
Latest Articles

The Residents - Visits From The N...
2025 sees the release of The Residents' most sonically contrasting release Doctor Dark- the project's forty-seventh studio album.  It blends sad and swo...
280525   The Residents - Visits From T...
090525   Ennaytch - Of walls, abused ...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
110325   Sebastian Tomb - Walls of unb...
040225   Alien Sex Fiend - Possessed B...
231224   Best Of 2024 - Music, Sound &...
191224   Splintered - Somewhere Betwee...
031224   Shane Ryan-Reid - Coerced and...
221024   Whore’s Breath - life’s h...
011024   David Kerekes Interview - Int...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom