Raté — Dans L'ombre

Dans L'ombre is a sluggishly churning ‘n’ shredding example of long-form walled noise from this highly prolific Bordeaux-based project. The single ‘wall’ featured here runs at eighty-two minutes- remaining thick, heavy, and muddy throughout.

This is a self-released digital affair- for cover art, we get a slightly off-angle photo of a nighttime parking lot, with single streetlights & trees to the side. The release title translates to Into The Shadows.

The ‘wall’ is centred around a thick, low-end, and slightly shunting gallop. This is edged by shredding ‘n’ weathered static clutter, and a subtle rolling ‘n’ ripping judder. The whole thing certainly has both industrial and elemental undercurrents to its makeup, with it feeling like a weighty pile-up, meaning there is not much separation between the textures.

There is no doubt there is a dense & ill-defined quality to this ‘wall’, which of course plays into the shadow theme. I’d say this is a middling release from Raté- yes, it has crushing & all-enveloping weight, but the lack of clarity/ separation in the textures means one never gets fully pulled in- so as a result, the runtime does become somewhat of a chore, instead of the dense entrancement it should be.