Bigfoot walled noise

Since starting in 2009 Fouke has remained one of my favourite projects created by highly respected, influential, and wall noise-defining US noisemaker Richard Ramirez. It takes its name and initially theme from the legend of the Fouke bigfoot, which comes from the small town of Texarkana of the same name- its story and sightings were chronicled in one of the great Bigfoot films of all time 1972’s “The Legend Of Boggy Creek”. As the project has gone on Ramirez has expanded the focus to take in legends from bigfoot around the world. What has made the project so consistent and rewarding is that it brings together well balanced, and dense wall-craft, with a great and mood-setting atmosphere which really does pull one mind into the woods, and the Bigfoot's lair. To date, the project has released thirty releases. Richard kindly agreed to give a rare interview- talking about the project's influences and more. And at the end of the interview, I’ve selected a few of my favourite releases from the project to talk about.

M[m]: When did your interest in the Fouke monster date back to? And are there any other cryptids that fascinate you?

Richard: Since watching "The Legend of Boggy Creek" as a child I was hooked, and I loved that film. I‘ve also visited the town Fouke as well once. It was with my friend (the late Randi Shrum-Houston of BLJ), and we were visiting her sister who lived not far from there. I remember arriving near her home and a huge sign that said "Welcome to Boggy Creek". Boggy Creek ran next to her home. Very isolated area. So, the idea of travelling to Fouke came. Very odd town and definitely a huge bigfoot fascination there.

M[m]: Please discuss how and when the idea for the Fouke project came about?

Richard: My fascination for bigfoot had already been there, so one day while rewatching "The Legend of Boggy Creek", the idea came to me.

 

M[m]: Fouke’s first release was 2009 self-titled on Small Doses- how did this come about, and what was your set-up for this release?

Richard:"Boggy Creek" was the first release. The self-titled came not long after. My setup is usually the same for most recordings. Death metal distortion, FAB distortion, and sometimes the "Holy Grail" pedal or "French Toast" pedal. I don't remember specifically what was used. I vary recordings sometimes with what I use as a source to create an album. It could be a fan, turntable, radio, room sound, etc.

 

M[m]: Following on from the last question- how has your set-up changed & developed over the project's existence, and are you still using any kit from when it started?

Richard: I am not a gear person at all. My husband Sean's more into his gear/ set-up. I use what I have. I might have use one from Sean's gear once in a while for creating Fouke tracks

 

M[m]: With each Fouke release you create a very atmospheric wall-craft, which brings to mind encounters with Bigfoot. Please discuss your working process, and how long does it take to craft a Fouke wall?

Richard: When I create, I do have a project in mind. Sometimes after watching/rewatching a film can generate inspiration for my work. With Fouke, I imagine a dense, dark wooded area and that can be reflected in the sounds. The density, suffocation feeling.

 

 

M[m]: After the initial first few Fouke releases focusing on the Fouke monster/ Boggy Creek film- you’ve expanded out theming releases around other bigfoot creatures- be it the Batutut- from the forests and jungles of Vietnam, Yeren- from China, various sightings of Bigfoot along the northeast Texas Sulphur River, etc. Please talk about some of the bigfoot legends that fascinate you most, and maybe mention a few that people may not have heard of?

Richard: There are many variations of “bigfoot” in different countries and cultures. In the U.S. there’s “Skunk Ape” known in Florida, “Momo” in Missouri, “Monster of Whitehall” in New York, “Grassman” in Ohio as well as others. It's something people should look into. It can be fascinating to read more about this and other creatures. I know there are a lot of doubts about thier existence, but the world is so large with so many areas untouched whether it's the forest, caves, the ocean. Things are always being discovered. Also, maybe there is more to bigfoot than its physical presence of it. Maybe it is more of a supernatural/haunting in the forest from generations in the past. Who knows, but I find it fascinating.

 

M[m]: Since Fouke started you’ve released twenty-nine releases so far- please talk about what you see as your favourite releases in the project discography?

Richard: Some of my favourite Fouke releases are "Woods Devil", "Until the Sun Goes Down", "Dyatlov Pass", and "Batutut".

 

M[m]: I know you are a huge cult film fan- so please mention a few of Bigfoot films you like, giving a little detail as to why they appeal.

Richard: Of course, "The Legend of Boggy Creek". which has sentimental value to me as well. I really enjoyed "Exists" (Very well crafted. Quite impressed by it), "Night of the Demon" (has an infamous scene that has to be seen to believe), "Boggy Creek II", “Willow Creek”. We recently saw “Willow Creek” and I was impressed by it. It has a creepy atmosphere. It’s not what you see, it’s what you hear and letting the imagination go wild. I love in films. The ending is fast but impactful.

 

M[m]: Have you ever thought/ or would consider releasing a Fouke boxset, compiling together out-of-print release/ charting the project's thirteen years of existence?

Richard: I put out a  6- CDR set "The Nguoi Rung Collection" which featured the following releases "Boggy Creek", "Batutut", "Black Lake", "Sasahevas", "Monster", and "Until the Sun goes Down". I am sure I'll do another in the future.

 

M[m]: I know you’ve played with quite a few of your projects in a live setting- but I don’t believe you’ve played live with Fouke. Is this something you’d considered doing?

Richard: It's certainly something that I would do. I  just haven’t been asked to do so yet, but who knows, maybe one day.

 

M[m]: What’s next for Fouke, and what other work have you got in the pipeline?

Richard:“The Red Mountains Of Almases” was the last one to come out on my husband’s label, The White Visitation. Haven’t worked on a new one yet. Not sure when there will be a new one. Eventually would love to do another vinyl or maybe a pro-CD of new work. We will see if that ever develops.

 

 

Thanks to Richard for his time and effort with the interview. The menu pic by Carol Cooley, photo of Richard by Tiffany Gorby, and kit  pictures self taken Richard's personal bandcamp can be found here , through Fouke releases have been on various labels- with the most recent of these being The Red Mountains Of Almases on The White Visitation - link here.

 

Looking Back Into The Woods- A Few Key Fouke Releases

 

Batutut -New Forces – released in 2010- in an edition of thirty copies

 

Batutut is a three c20 boxset- with each tape severed up six ten-minute tracks of thick ‘n’ extremely crushing static texture, and all engulf HNW. The set takes its title from the name used for the bigfoot/Yeti beast in the forests and jungles of Vietnam, Laos, and Borneo.

The box set stands as one of the more colourful and glossy-looking HNW releases. The three tapes are presented in a vinyl case featuring full-colour artwork/ insert of jungle/forest that the Batutut call its home. Each tape features pro-printed labels, which take pictures of footprints made by the Batutut and other Bigfoot-like beasts.

Each of the six tracks are engulfing and extremely thick studies in dense, rolling, roaring and head-tearing static texturing and truly unforgiving HNW matter. Each summons up either the sonic equivalent of running through a dense and claustrophobic forest while being chased by something. Or the textural feel of the fierce and primal roar of a group of very cross and bloodthirsty Bigfoot, onto the torrential rain hammering sound on the rain forest thick and green canopies. All six tracks here are equally engulfing and enjoyable crushing, but one of my favourite moments comes in the form of “Wilderness” which appears on the second side of tape two. The track feels like a huge, speeded-up and on-mass collection of tribal drum hammering/ beatings; it brings to mind hundreds of natives battering their drums in pure and overloaded rage/panic(maybe to scare off the Batutut?)- with their hands bleeding and splitting-open due to the rate that there attacking their drums.

 

Black Lake-Burial Recordings – 2012- in an edition of ten copies

 

Black Lake is a C45 tape- featuring three tracks in all, one the first side & two on the second side. The release’s title from the 1976 US movie “Creature from Black Lake”, and the movie tells the story of a group of fishermen that are attacked in the Louisiana swamps. When the word gets out that a mysterious Bigfoot-type creature was what attacked them, two researchers come to a small town to study and hopefully discover what the beast is.

Side A features just one track “Tsul 'Kalu”( Cherokee name for Big Foot). The track starts off with a muffled mixture of night-time woodlands sounds, and an American man talking about believing in Bigfoot’s. Then pretty soon we drop into the ‘wall’ which is a great active mixture of brutal bass-bound buffeting, mid-range juddering static races/ gallops, & this weird chattering animalistic texture that pops up from time to time. Around the five & half minute mark we drop down to another very muffled recording of the same man talking about someone stalking a Bigfoot, but pretty soon the noise engulfs the sample again. When the ‘wall’ comes back in again it’s a more searing & rapid attack than it was before, with this galloping/ racing mixture of semi-aquatic & roasting tones, which brought to mind a raging flight with a bigfoot in a body of water. By the 8th minute, a billowing intense bass bound judder & roasting textured bound has overtaken, and this has nice brutal skipping 'n' juddering mid-tone static lines going through it. Once again around the 9.30 mark a now total mangled tape recording sample pops up stuck in the ‘wall’, but this doesn’t last long & we return back to the roaring bass-lined billow & static judder type ‘walling’. The rest of the twenty-minute track finds Ramirez skilfully petering the ‘wall’ back to almost AWN territory, and then backing up again to raging/ battering searing walled noise attack- with this great churning ‘n’ stalking static grain running through it, this sounds like something ferreting 'n' roaming through woodland. The track finishers with more muffled recordings of the man talking about someone stalking a Bigfoot.

Over onto side B, and first up we have “Ape Canyon”, and this finds some very muffled interview or film dialogue with a hunter talking about his dog barking at night. Then at just over the minute mark the ‘wall’ slams in, & it’s a very urgent mixture of buzzing ‘n’ juddering mid-tone noise wall- that sounds like something huge been electrocuted & jerking on a huge metal rack. This track comes in at near the three-minute mark.

Lastly, we have “Return To Black Lake” which starts with another dialogue sample with a man saying ‘ I don’t want you Yankee boys saying one word about that creature, it just scared the devil out of my wife’ , then we’re into the ‘wall’ which is a highly urgent/ roasting mix of billowing flare like mid-range texturing that weaved with stalking ‘n’ jittering more white-out static texturing. The ‘wall’ starts to nicely ease back & shift down a gear, as if it might go ANW….yet it never does, but instead creates this nice roasting Continued descent.

 

Hide -Deadline Recordings /H Series HNW- 2012- in an edition of fifteen copies

 

Hide servers up four lengthy slices of dense & atmospheric HNW in the form of a four CDR set. Each CDR features a single ‘wall’, each runs between forty & fifty minutes, and each of these is untitled.

The first untitled track revolves around a tight, seared yet moody blend of the following elements: A continual spiral low-end worming drone, mid-paced slight rattle bound judder, and a selection of thicker snapping ‘n’ rolling tones. Together these create this highly hypnotic ‘wall’, which very much summons up images of something large & balky following you through a dense & thick forest- the branches rapidly bending & breaking around you, thick ropes of weeds & brambles pulling at your clothes, and this constantly large bounding presence behind you. The tracks comes in at 40.16, and throughout it remains very thick in its feel; from time to time one texture seems to become more pressing & forward in the mix, but I suspect that’s just my imagination & the whole thing is mostly fixed in its flow.

Moving onto the second disc, and the second untitled track. And after dense & detailed feel of the first discs ‘wall’, this track goes a bit more droned-based, coarsely washed-out, and haunting. It brings together several layers of shuddering ‘n’ wind-like noise drone hovering, within this there's a deeply buried undercurrent of a simmering bell or chime-like tones. Where the first track felt forest bound, this one feels like you're out in the middle of snow storm white-out- so it feels like Mr Ramirez is bringing us to the freezing & mountainous location of the Yeti or Abominable Snowman. There is some shift & ebb in the layers of this track, as some are added then removed, or suddenly dropped back- but on the whole, it’s fairly even with its bone-chilling white-out.

Track three returns to more formal ‘wall’ territory, and brings together layers of constantly hacking ‘n’ tightly juddering noise. The layers have a lower-to-mid range, and go from thick & lumbering, though to thinner & crisper. The way Ramirez weaves them together creates this intriguing & taut pelting storm-type vibe- I guess if one were to try & describe this ‘wall’ you’d say it’s akin to being in a t-shirt in cold constantly spitting & stringing winter rain. It’s most worthy in its taut tension, subtle layer differences, and un-breaking pace.

And last up on disc four we of course have the fourth untitled ‘wall’. For this track we have a blend of set rolling & rotating textures- ebbed with light waves & thicker dwells of searing grain, sudden deep meaty roars, buried knockings, etc. Also from time to time, you can make out dialogue & weird animalistic sounds- I’m guess these are taken from a Bigfoot film or documentary (these elements are fairly buried & difficult to discern- so they act as another layer). Of the four tracks here this is certainly the most shifting & varied, though the rolling ‘n’ rotating base does seem to stay fairly firm, as Ramirez shifts the other elements over the top. At times it almost moves towards harsh noise, but never truly gets there. All told it’s a rewarding enough more active & layer shifting end to set.