Clive Henry — Day Of The Woman
The colour labelled tape comes in a pro printed double sided colour cover- on it’s front we have a unending green texture, and on it’s inner sleeve we have a picture of Camille Keaton( who is the films main actor).
The film was released in 1978, and fast became a highly controversial moive- its plot told an aspiring writer (Keaton) who rents a house out in the US countryside to write her first book. A unsavoury gang of men become aware of her, and fairly soon repeatedly gang-raped & humiliated, then leave her for dead. She then systematically hunts down each in turn to seek out her blood & violent revenge. The film still stands today as a stark & highly shocking.
Opening side A we have the track “Terra di pace mi sembrava questa...” ( roughly translated to Land of peace I felt this ...), and this comes in around the five & a half minute mark. The track opens up with a mixture of distant electric razor like buzzing & a selection of seemingly random crackling, dragging & snapping textural detail. At around the minute mark the faint buzzing texture becomes more harmonic yet unsettling- as it takes on a higher pitched wavering sour-ness. All around this the crackling, dragging & snapping details continue, building a nice feeling of stark unease. As we move into the 3rd minute we get these haunted wavering voice like textures. The tracks acts a great moody yet edgy start to proceedings, and perfectly fits the tone of the film it’s self.
Second on side A we have “Ora tutto il mio passato orribile risorge, e vivo innanzi al guardo mio si posa” ( roughly translated to Now all my horrible past resurrected , and alive to watch my first alights), and this track takes up the rest of the sides runtime at 34.31 mark. The track is sequenced straight in from the first track, and it opens with a growing in volume mixture of rushing & earthy rumbling noise, which is cut by a slightly ragged thick skirt of jittering ‘n’ juddering- there’s a really meaty yet bleak feel about this ‘wall’. At around the 4th minute a rattling & rumble deep harmonic tone can just be made out- this feels like a cross between a pressing drone & rattling/ rumbling tone( this secondary element brought the mind the sound of a mass of water rolling round & round metallic pipe work, or at others a thick 'n' doomed church organ sustain). As the track moves on the newer elements and the original textures mesh to create this huge ‘wall’ which seems to be both vast yet oppressive & breathless in it’s feel.
Flipping over to side B, and first up we have “Asil di pace ora la tomba invoco...”( roughly translated to Asil peace now invoke the grave ...), and this track comes in at 13.27 mark. This track is built around a buzzing ‘n’ bass bound judder, which is edged by a semi crisp static jittering- the bass judder has a great intense worming urgency about it, while the jitter has a neat sort of taut eerier-ness. As the track moves on the static jitter seems to get more violent & seared in feel, and at times it almost overloads the judder….before it backs down again…the track sort of fades out at it’s end
Second up on side B we have "No! non voglio morire!"( roughly translated to No! I do not want to die !), and this comes in at 14.07 mark. This is built around another mix of bass bound juddering, and taut crisp jittering- the judder in this track is a lot tauter & tense, and so is the jitter. The whole thing really batters into your ears & head with its sinus cleaning deep bass-ness, and constant amass hacking ice pick like jittering. At around the 11th minute high pitched sourness is added to the jittering, and this has a most effective feeling of wooziness to it…in the last few minutes the track focus in a mix chopping, swirling & piercing pitch dances.
Side B finish off with "Sola, perduta, abbandonata" ( translated to Alone, lost , abandoned)- this comes in at just shy of the six minute mark. This track returns back to the more moody start of the tape- with Clive created this slowed & pulled out mesh of string work & wavering guitar- but it’s difficult to fully define what it is, as he melts & morphs in out into a pained hovering & dwelling mass of thick & sour psycho ambience.
All in all this is yet another brilliantly conceived & constructed release from Mr Henry- here his brutal yet progressive take on walled noise is both intense yet sourly unsettling, which of course perfectly fits the film it’s themed around. Really if your after skilfully made walled noise which is both searing yet bleakly intelligent this is a must have item!.