Pacte Mort — Tomb's Flowers
Pacte Mort is a project that brings together two respected & known names in the walled noise scene. Romain Perrot of sometimes black bag wearing French wall noise project Vomir, and Johan S Hammarstedt of wall projects Rien & Gamiani- he also runs Ominous Recording, which has put out more than it’s share of great wall release. Tomb's Flowers is the projects first release, and it is very much a half-way house between wall and harsh noise.
For review we where sent the standard edition- this finds a black shelled cassette presented in a black, white, and grimy blood-red colour scheme sleeve- this takes in on its front cover a murky picture of a skull in veil & garment. With inside a murky photo of the hooded & bagged collaborators- this came in an edition of thirty-five copies, and as of this review, the label still has copies available for purchase.
Each side features a side-long track, and first, up we have “Roses Rouge Et Mort”- here we find a thick, muddy & murky blend of churning & choppy low-end, skittering static mids, and suddenly searing high grinds. It’s akin to been thrown into a rapidly moving cement mixer filled with huge lumps of mud & still sticky concrete, as you get jabbed & poked ever so often by either an electro prod or a malfunctioning mini saw. Even though we have a mix of wall & hash noise here, there is a structure & consistency to the whole thing- sure the more high end grind still surprise, and at points make me jump- but the whole thing feels well composed & even in its attack/ flow.
Flipping the tape over & we have the track "Le Pacte De Mort"-here we find blend of slightly a more mid tone focused choppiness & galloping, constantly searing static feast, and slurred high-end bays & sears. If the first track saw you been put in the mixer, this finds you starting to get really battered & up ripped by the processes. The flow feels slightly more unpredictable & lose this time around, and there is a feeling that at any moment the whole thing could start to rip & tear it’s self apart, which I very much enjoyed. As the track progresses we get nicely intense additions of layers of longer sear & clamouring grate, and this nicely pushes the whole thing forward & builds the whole seared nastiness of the track.
Tomb's Flowers is certainly a rewarding & nasty opening shot from Pacte Mort, and I certainly hope that there is more to come from this project. As the pair have managed to create a fairly distinctive sound together, which nicely takes from each other's solo sound, but comes up with something nasty & necro, yet fresh enough- like a recently dug-up corpse that’s been in the ground for a month or so. Head here to hear samples & buy direct