Logical Fiend — The Scar Of A Dead City
Logical Fiend is walled noise project of Frenchman Paul Grémare(also of two piece noise project Prairie-Litière, and runs experimental/ noise label Autistic Campaign). The project has been in existence since 2012, and has so far put out around eight releases- taking in a full length CDR releases, three stand alone tape releases, and a few splits.
The pro printed cassette tape comes in a mini front opening black plastic tape case, which features on it’s front cover a one of the more infamous images connected with Wakamatsu's film work- a black & white still of a forlorn looking Asia women standing on a deserted track with a volcano in the background- the women’s black dress is ripped at the front & one of her breast is showing. The still comes from 1972’s Tenshi no kôkotsu( aka Ecstasy of the Angels or Angelic Orgasm), which told of group of oversexed militants (named after the days of the week) who try to steal weapons from a U.S Army base--Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are killed. Slowly, the surviving group members realize they've been betrayed by their own organization, and begin to wreak sexual and political anarchy on everything in sight. The film is often compared to French new wave art-house movies of the 60’s, but of course with an oriental twist, and lots of sex & violence.
Side one is taken up by two tracks- “Abashiri Prison”, which comes in at the 13.43 mark & “Caterpillar”, which comes in at the 9.07. “Abashiri Prison” is themed around 1969 Wakamatsu film “Gendai sei hanzai ankokuhen: aru torima no kokuhaku” ( aka Story Of A Sex Crime: Rape Without Reason, or Violence Without Reason), the track takes it's name from the swooning oriental song sample that starts the track off. The ‘wall’ is built around a rapid mix of searing fixed roasting noise, that is underfed by battering & slightly cluttering scraping ‘n’ hammering tube tones. The tube tones have quite a manic oriental traditional feel to them, like someone attacking bamboo percussion with intense bloody vigour, then the whole thing is fed though a distortion pedal. As the track moves on you get sudden 'n' random short sparking glitches with-in the ‘wall’, along with bunches of sudden off pattern battering & cluttering that are lower in the mix. The tracks a nice intense start to the tape, and it’s directly sequenced into the next track with a disturbing film sample which takes in the pained moans of a women, and a oriental mans whispered voice.
“Caterpillar” the second track on side A is themed around the 2010 Wakamatsu of the same name, which tells of a soldier from the Chinese-Japanese war returning to his village home. He is completely disabled by his injures he sustained in battle – having no limbs, facial burns, impaired hearing and speech, his survival seems a miracle. The soldier returns to his wife; who he was abused & raped before he departed for war- the film is a stark character study & an anti war statement.
The ‘wall’ on offer here is a mixture of judder ‘n’ buffeting noise texturing, and it is once more underfed by a distant & muffled rapid bamboo percussive texture- this element( and the whole ‘wall’) is a lot more woozy 'n' wonky than this sides first track. As the track progress it weaves & batters along in a fairly firm manner, though the whole thing does feel like it's gets buffeted by a gusting wind storm- so from time to time it stretches & bends out of shape.
Side two is taken up by a single track, and this comes in the form of just under twenty three minute “The Scar Of A Dead City”. The track is based around 1969 Wakamatsu movie "Gewalt! Gewalt: shojo geba-geba" (aka Violent Virgin). The tracks title actually refers to what is said in the Japanese sampled text at start of the track, which translates into ‘Hanako. It is the scar of a dead city’. The films mainly takes place in a desolate field, but it starts out with two separate cars driving along- one contains three gangster, and the other contains three prostitutes(who are loosely linked to the gang). The members of a gang, have a couple bound and blindfolded in their car, & after they reach the field, they drag the man and woman, out of the cars and start to attack & rape them. The film is a disturbing yet art house mix of sexual violence and metaphors.
This tracks ‘wall’ is built around a mix of tight & rapid meaty downward juddering, that is topped with this continual churning & slightly forking mid-to-high pitched jittering tonality. The downward juddering stays fixed & punishing though-out, while the churning ‘n’ juddering tone has some subtle movement in it- also this sound element shifts nicely between sounding either like a warpped & sped-up film soundtrack sample, a chattering loop & seared-up dialogue chatter, or a buzzing electro slight woozy searing noise tone. The track ends off with a jaunting piano march sample, which is a nice contrast to the rest of the track. I enjoyed both the first sides ‘walls’, but for me this sides track is the highlight of the release, as it nicely brings together searing intensity & a sleazed short of woozy-ness.
So to sum up this tape offers up three well thought-out, nicely theme focused & rewarding slices of wall-making. With the nice & effective pro presentation of the tapes packaging adding a extra bit of class to the release. This release appeared in a edition of 25 copies in mid 2013, so hopefully you might still be able to pick up a copy of this.