Shining Sex/Midnight Party - Split [Ensemble Vide Records - 2015]This C90 tape brings together two lengthy, punishing, yet rewarding slices of walled noise, which are themed around the films of euro sleaze master Jess Franco. The release appeared in September 2015, and as of writing copies are still available from Ensemble Vide Records website. Both projects here are led by two highly respected wall-noise artists- Shining Sex is the project of long term, multi project linked, and highly influential Texas noise artists Richard Ramirez. And Midnight Party is the project of highly prolific & respected French noise maker Julien Skrobek. Shinning Sex has been active since 2009, releasing around 16 releases. And Midnight Party is a much more recent project, which started in 2015, and this split is the project debut release. On side one we have the Shining Sex track "Irina". The track opens with a film sample taking in female crying, a creaking door, and some muffled trumpet music- this only last a minute or so. And when the ‘walls’ kicks in it’s a fairly muffled, washed-out yet rapid affair. It brings together a mesh of continual tumbling judders, which seem have hints of compressed junk bashing & muddy rumbling appearing sometimes in the folds of the ‘walls’ unstoppable descent. The textures are a blend of murky, galloping crisp, and blunt yet rapidly muddy. The whole thing has a fairly narrow tonally range, landing in the sort of lower-to-mid range- but as a whole the ‘walls’ most compelling in it’s locked down, murky & endlessly spiralling descent. Flipping over to the other side, and we have the Midnight Party track, which is entitled "Silvia". This track starts with another film sample- this time it’s a chatty interaction between two French women- this lasts a little bit longer than the first sides sample, but with-in a minute & a half it’s over & we’re into the wall. This track further deeps the murky & lo-fi vibe of the first side- it brings together a central & set meaty rumble, which is surround by circles of sluggish sub-rumbles & tonal creases. As the track progress the whole thing seems to get more murky, sluggish & bleak- yet it still seems to keep up a fairly slowed to mid pace through-out. Both tracks here are great examples of murky & sleazed ‘wall-craft’, that are both intense & very moorish. All in all this is a great split, and as I said in the opening paragraph there are copies still available- so head over to here to check out track samples & buy a copy. Roger Batty
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