Fouke — The Red Mountains of Almases
The Red Mountains of Almases sees the welcome return of Richard Ramirez’s bigfoot focused wall-noise project Fouke, which stands as my favourite project of this respected and influential American noisemaker. This new release appears in the form of a C32/ digital download, which takes in two fifteen minutes slices of dense-yet-atmospheric wall making.
Seemingly the cassette comes presented with a monochrome J-card sleeve, which takes in a picture of a thickly wooded hill. With the tape coming in an edition of fifteen copies- I’m reviewing a digital promo, so can’t really detail the tape's release any more than the above.
The Fouke project started in the year 2009- with it initially purely focused its theme on the legend of the Fouke bigfoot, which comes from the smalltown of Texarkana- its story/ sightings have been told in one of the great Bigfoot films of all time 1972’s The Legend Of Boogy Creek. As the project has gone on Ramirez has expanded the focus to take in all legends of the bigfoot from around the world- and this new releases theme is the beast that roams the Caucasus and Pamir Mountains of Central Asia and the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. In total, the Fouke project has put out around thirty releases since it started, with its focus being very much on quality over quantity- which makes it stand as one of Ramirez best work.
The release features two untitled track, and the first track opens with a blend of constantly rolling & tightly churning bass drones. This is topped by a rapid and tightly woven mixture of thick hacking static. Around these two main texturally focus one can make of hissing, grinding, and at points sputtering subtones, which really enhance & add depth, to what to start with felt like a fairly straight slice of wall-craft. As the track progresses it sounds like we are getting shifting layers of loser hack, pile driving bass fluctuations, and a few other layer shifts/movement- though I’m sure how many of these are real/ genuine, or are a trick of the ‘wall’.
The other track "II" begins with a mixture of rapidly slugging ‘n’ thickening cerement churning low end and a split ‘n’ splattering static grain hack. As it progresses, I start to make out this muffled industrial droning presence, with more pelting & rushing tonalities coming to the fore. At the six-minute mark, the low end seems to start to slowly shift between more fierce rushing & the initial slugging ‘n’ churning setting- with some great sudden builds, then fade backs occurring in this layer of the ‘wall’. The mid-range static elements have become secondary now, and are used to bring in a feeling of rushing-to-shredding tension. In the last minute, the ‘wall’ drops out for some really eerie baying howls- which I’m guessing are field recordings of bigfoots.
The Red Mountains of Almases is another very consistent release from Fouke, severing up two densely searing yet atmospheric examples of wall craft that certainly have a big foot vibe about them. As I mentioned early there are only fifteen copies in all of the physical release of this, so if you’re a fan of the project I’d act sooner than later, as I’m sure these won't hang about long- head by here for more info.