Gamiani — Madame Delbène
Gamiani started in 2016, and is one of the projects of Johan Strömvall Hammarstedt- who has a few wall/ noise projects to his name such as Rien, JSH, J.S.H- he also runs the excellent Ominous Recordings label. I’ll have to say before we get stuck into the review I’ve found past releases from this project rather hit & miss, compared with Hammarstedt other work- which I often enjoy
On side A we have “I want to melt absolutely into fuck” and here we find a wonderfully spurting 'n' spiteful wall. The track brings together chopping ‘n’ sputtering static meshing, with an undercarriage of hacking-yet-compressed bass tone. The whole 'wall' feels both urgent & brutally crude in its attack, with the whole thing having a relative set feel to its textures- through the further in we get the more slight off pattern sputtering occurs, which nicely intensifies the whole raging feel of the track. I really rather liked this track, and I’d say it’s one of the better tracks I’ve heard from this project thus far.
Flipping over to side B, and we have “Fuck, I want to come”- with this ‘wall’ the feeling is even more chaotic & intensely lashing in its intent, though personally, I found it a little ill-defined & messy in its attack. Here we find a galloping mid-range roast- this is edged with rushing wash of static, together these elements create almost an white out of sound. If you focus on the mid-range you do get a fairly effective feeling of un-balancement- but this wasn’t enough to keep me held in & engrossed by the whole thing. So while the track certainly follows on with a similar vibe to the first track, it all just felt too messy & undefined for my liking.
In finishing I certainly enjoy Madame Delbène more than some of this projects stand-alone releases- with Hammarsted certainly managing to create a consistent feeling of searing intensity throughout the tape. I just felt the second side rather went a bit too far- meaning as a listening experience it switched from been intensely appealing to shapeless whiteout.