Ecco — The Touch Of Her Flesh

Ecco is the 60’s & 70’s grind house movie themed walled  noise project of respected & prolific French walled noise artists Julien Skrobek. All of the projects releases find Julien creating very raw & sleazed walled craft, which is created with radio static as a source. This cassette release from early 2015 offers up two around twenty minute slices of HNW- the release came in an edition of 40 hand number copies, so all been well you’ll still be able to get your hands on a copy.

This release is themed around The Touch Of Her Flesh- which was the first film in infamous roughie sexploitation ‘Flesh’ trilogy- these brought together elements of  nudity, sex , inventive murder & at times hilarious dialogue into a over-the-top  exploitation ride. The 1967 film plot told of  Richard Jennings- a distraught/ unhinged weapons dealer who is involved in an automobile accident after catching his stripper wife in bed with another man. Upon recovering, he goes on a killing spree, bumping off exotic dancers and hookers while plotting revenge on his wife.

The tape comes with pro-printed black & white j-card, and a separate fold out double sided, black, white & red inlay.  These each take in stills from the film, and all told it's a nicely & subtle sleazy bit of packing that fits the releases theme & the ‘walls’ with-in.

First up on side A we have the track "Rugged And Rough".  It opens up with a sample from the film with Richard Jennings, talking about his bloody revenge against his wife Claudia, over the back drop of an urgent yet low grade piano soundtrack.  Fairly soon the ‘wall’ comes in, and it offers an constant, deep, meaty shovelling/ jittering noise texture, and this is surrounded by a taut & tensioned   billowing/ buzzing judder. The whole tracks has a suitable lo-fi, crude & sleazy feel about it, but I’m afraid to say my mind did start to wonder.

Flipping over to side two & we have the track "Fast Paced Thrills". And once again the track starts with another sample from the movie, and this time it’s a great bit of amusing & stilled dialogue between Claudia & a female friend over a backdrop of bland stock music. Pretty soon the ‘wall’ comes in, and it brings together a deep ‘n’ murky rumble/ muffled chugging, with a web of thinner jittering & juddering patterns- these two elements are set together into a fixed ‘wall’.  I found this track more effective than the first side, but it still didn’t really grab me & just felt a little standard.

So in summing this cassette tape gives the listener another two slices of suitable sleazed & lo—fi grind house themed walls. I can’t say that this stands as my favourite release from the project, sure both tracks are well enough conceived & executed, but ultimately the textures just didn’t pull me in as much as some of the projects other work. All in all it just an ok release.