Fouke — Woods Devil
The release comes in the form of either a C30 tape, or digital download- the tape came in a edition of just 15 copies, and as of writing this review there is seemingly at least one copy left, via buying direct from Mr Ramirez on discogs. I’m reviewing the digital download of the release, so I can’t comment of the tape presentation it’s self. The release features a track aside in the tape version, and one long track on the download.
So as I’m reviewing the digital version I’ll be writing about it as a single track, which is simple entitled "Woods Devil". So the ‘wall’ kicks straight in with no sample or intro, and it’s centred around a very taut & muddy rumble-to-churning low end. Which is surrounded by a tense, detailed, though fairly narrow matt of hacking ‘n’ juddering lows -to-mids. These move between crisp & tense ripple, barren & blunt stabbings, and cluttering batterings. Over the first half of the track, structurally things remain relatively firm, though there does seem to be some subtle adjustment the hacking ‘n’ juddering tones, but this may just be a trick of the ‘wall’.
At around just before the sixteenth minute mark, we suddenly pare back to a more narrow blend of muddy yet tightly low-end judder, and thin yet tautly crisp static. With-in a short time the layers of the ‘wall’ have built back up, and we now have a blend of more purr bound & condensed low-end, with a topping of crisp & very slightly ram shackled judder ‘n’ jitter on top. Later on around the twenty one minute mark things pare back again for a wonderfully crude, atmospheric, yet masterful blend of muddy low-end tight-ness, and a beaded line compressed jitter ‘n’ judder. Before in the last five minutes switching back to slightly full ‘wall’, though now the whole things feels quite disorientating & balance affecting due to the blend of continually pouring cerement like rumble, and taut yet detailed hacking textures.
Simple put Woods Devil is another great & extremely worthy addition to Fouke’s near fault-less discography. If you want a prime example of how tense, atmospheric, masterfully & totally entrancing wall-craft is created check this out!, and if you can try to pick it up in physical form!