Contrastate — Seven Flies Feeding Inside The Tears Of A Woman’s Eye
Seven Flies Feeding Inside The Tears Of A Woman’s Eye is Contrastate’s attempt at creating a soundtrack for an imaginary film. And as you can probably gather from the title, it’s a giallo- with the UK-based ambient/ experimental trio creating a decidedly warped, macabrely tripped-out, and uneasy sonic ride.
The album appears on Italy’s FinalMuzik, as either a digital download or as a physical CD- I’m reviewing the latter of these. The CD comes presented in a glossy yellow gatefold- because, of course, giallo means yellow in Italian. For artwork, we get lines of creepy monochrome dolls, with minimal text.
Contrastate started in the late 80’s, going on in the 90’s to release sinisterly surreal masterpieces like A Thousand Badgers In Labour (1990), and A Live Coal Under The Ashes(1992). They went on hiatus between 2000 & 2010- this is their fifth album since returning.
The eight-track album features run times between three and eight minutes. We open with “ Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds” which kicks off very urgent/ bombastic with a constantly rolling drum pattern, clanging keys, whispered voices, and distant choirs. The beat peaks/ then drops out as we move into a collage of strummed unease, ringing phones, backwards 'n' forwards voices, and the sound of buzzing flies- later on, it switches between golden hoovering & uneasy ambient tones.
On “My Colours Run Through Your Veins” we find buzzing ‘n’ purr low-end repetition, a steady snapping beat line, backwards 'n' forward pitch sweeps, tightly cut snippets of dialogue, possibly a slightly grooving guitar line. Before we pare back to a mix of: uneasy piano clunk, retro electro tone swells, and ominous guitar feedback purr. “The Perfumed Scent Of The Surgeon’s Wife” starts off as a manically swirling & jittering blend of boiler pipe hiss, distant guitar shimmer, seesawing beat structure, and mumbled vocal snippets- both backwards & forwards. Before later moving into a slowly warping string scoring, hiss & scuttling texturing, and hovering retro synth unease.
It’s certainly great to hear new material from Contrastate, and Seven Flies Feeding Inside The Tears Of A Woman’s Eye shows they still have the power to create rewardingly morphing sonic unease & disquiet. They expertly manage to utilise giallo soundtrack tropes/ musical genres to their needs, to create a feeling of spiralling mystery and puzzling disquite.