Logical Fiend & Black Matter Phantasm — Obsession

French imprint Nahàsh Atrym Productions presents Obsession by Logical Fiend & Black Matter Phantasm. This limited edition c90 cassette was released in the early days of 2014 and features a couple of frenchmen who have been pretty active in the wall noise genre over the last couple of years.

HNW has been an outlet (from many years now) for artists exploring their obsessions through sonic textures. So it’s appropriate that this release be titled Obsession. What their object of obsession is on this release is unknown to me. There’s very little info in the j-card and the photo of the women on the front cover doesn’t leave a clue for me. I suppose if I was a bit more obsessed I could do some investigating, but since I’m not an obsessive person, I’ll let the noise speak for itself.

Obsession starts off with a side long piece by Logical Fiend. The track begins with, what sounds like, a field recording of city life. It's rather subdued, featuring the sparse and quiet sounds of cars, open space, and a faint human voice. The cityscape sounds very distant, but a thick atmosphere of open space comes across loud and booming. As this extended recording rolls on, a thin line of static crackle slowly folds in. As the sample recedes, a thick juddering bass tone presents itself. It's a pulsing thick mass, booming in rapid repetition. The thinner line of static thickens and we have two separate lines dueling it out. As the track progresses the two lines ramp up even more and coalesce into a vigorously chugging juggernaut. The sounds eventually lock in and stay fixed for a good spell before a third line starts worming it's way into the mix. This one being of a thick crumbly tone. The second half of this side long track continues along similar fashion, but the sounds are choked and broken up. The onslaught is tempered by a choker chain wrapped around this sonic beast.

The flip side of the tape is owned by Black Matter Phantasm. His walls are presented in 4, 10 minute slabs. Track 1 entitled “A nos morts” is full bore wall, right out the gates. It’s a swarming mass of broken bass tones and jagged static. Underneath the wall, is a droney oscillating synth sound that revolves in mysterious repetition. It makes the piece quite unique and is my favorite on this side. The following tracks “C” and “Dévotion” are more standard fare wall-making, both sounding like variations on the blown out radio static route. The pieces feel rather subdued and somewhat blunted in their delivery, but with enough blustering energy to lull the listener into the dead zone. The final track on this side “23” is an energetic deployment of jittering static bursts.

In conclusion, Logical Fiend goes for a long wall-ride of subtle shifts, while Black Matter Phantasm goes for multiple static tracks. Two side of the same coin I suppose. A competent offering of contemporary HNW that should satisfy the devoted.