
Vomir - Ennui [Under Label - 2014]Ennui is a C15 tape release that offers up two short ‘n’ brutal wall submersions from the French master of HNW Vomir. The release appears on Belgium’s Under Label, and it comes in a edition of 30 copies. The labelled tape comes in a single sided colour printed inlay sleeve, that takes in a voyeuristic picture of a women sun bathing in a park- this adds a rather sleazed/ slightly perverse edge to the proceeds. ‘Ennui’ is the French word for boredom, so I’m not really sure how this connects with park-bound-voyeurism, but I guess it gives the whole thing a different look from the more monochrome & abstract look of many of Vomir’s releases. In a fairly standard Vomir fashion both of the tracks here are untitled, and each track takes up a full side of tape. The first ‘wall’ is built around a rushing ‘n’ slightly rattling mass of flowing/feasting static- the pace here is rapid & unforgiving, and as you’d expect with Vomir the wall is also fixed. Though like the best walled noise, there seems to be a effective ( through imagined) shift in the chopping ‘n’ searing walled textures, as the track progresses. I guess if I was to try & describe the sound here, I’d say it was like a amplified & feed back engulfed recording of a unmoving winter storm, which seems to be lashing and battering away at your place of shelter in a most unforgiving manner. Flipping over to side two, and this track is built around two slight more separated, yet still all engulfing & wall-like, noise textures. We have rapid & upfront flowing yet slightly juddering noise tone, and a buried continual trudging slightly slower static texture. The two textures are feed together to create this most rewardingly disorientating feel- so you can never pin down the ‘wall’ to one set speed or flow, and as a result it feels like your fighting against a continual battering wash of dense ‘n’ pure static that’s flowing in slightly different directions/ speeds. I’ll have to admit for the most part I’m not a fan of shorter dwells in HNW, as I really like to get full engulfed by walled noise for at least 15/20 minute plus. But as short walled noise release go, this is satisfy enough & both tracks here are subtle different, and both are engrossing for their relatively short runtime
     Roger Batty
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