Les Cauchemars Naissent La Nuit — 1970

1970 is the sixth release from Les Cauchemars Naissent La Nuit- one of the more recent & straight forward wall noise projects from respected French noise maker Julien Skrobek. It’s a self-released tape that appeared in July of this year taking in two fifteen-minute walls- one on each side of tape- with once again the focus/ theme of the release been Jess Franco’s dreamy & tripped-out exotic horror 1970’s Nightmares Come At Night.

The release had an edition of ten copies, with the red shelled C30 coming inside a black envelope featuring stuck on film titles/ project name in white & red. Along with the tape we find several paper inserts featuring film stills & release details- with the whole thing been presented in a red fishnet bag, that's tied up with black ribbon.

First, up on side A, we have  “Los Ojos De La Noche”- here we find Skrobek building a decidedly atmospheric & ghoulish wall- it's built around a slightly buffeting low-end drone, and these webbed semi-jittering static textures. As soon as this track kicked in I’m getting images of vast sways of spider web,  that are either been wrapped around you as your strapped down in some dank corridor, or catching and sticking to your face & body- as you make your way through half-lit underground crypts. The top layer is really masterful created, and it really does have this web-like quality to it, while the droning low-end is nicely penetration- all making for a most captivating & skilful toned wall. I really could have listened to this for twice this track length, and still be entranced by it- another very classy example of wall craft from one of the euro masters of the form.

Flipping the tape over we have "Sangre En La Noche"-here we find a fairly tonally similar to the first side, but the droning has become more pressing & drilling in its intent, and the jitter has become more rapid & slightly spluttering in its attack. This side feels a lot less atmospheric & more battering in its attack. Following on from the first side track it most certainly works, and as a stand-alone track it’s sonically well balanced- sadly it just didn’t grab me in the same way as the first sides ‘wall’, so while I admire the continuity & flow of the release this side was lacking for me…but that’s just me, and as anyone knows whose been into wall craft for any time- feelings towards certainly tracks can be very subjective.

It’s always a pleasure to listen to a new release from Skrobek, and while I have mixed feelings about the second ‘wall’- the whole thing is as usual well executed in a highly expert & skilful manner- so if you’re a Skrobek fan, and can still get hold of this- it’s well worth picking up.