Gamiani - Madame Delbčne [Putrescent Tapes - 2019]Madame Delbčne is a two-track C40 from this Swedish project who creates blistering thick ‘n crudely cluttering walled noise themed around 1800-1900 erotic literature & fetishes. This tape appearing last September, and seemingly the label still has copies for sale as of this review. Gamiani started in 2016, and is one of the projects of Johan Strömvall Hammarstedt- who has a few wall/ noise projects to his name such as Rien, JSH, J.S.H- he also runs the excellent Ominous Recordings label. I’ll have to say before we get stuck into the review I’ve found past releases from this project rather hit & miss, compared with Hammarstedt other work- which I often enjoy
On side A we have “I want to melt absolutely into fuck” and here we find a wonderfully spurting 'n' spiteful wall. The track brings together chopping ‘n’ sputtering static meshing, with an undercarriage of hacking-yet-compressed bass tone. The whole 'wall' feels both urgent & brutally crude in its attack, with the whole thing having a relative set feel to its textures- through the further in we get the more slight off pattern sputtering occurs, which nicely intensifies the whole raging feel of the track. I really rather liked this track, and I’d say it’s one of the better tracks I’ve heard from this project thus far.
Flipping over to side B, and we have “Fuck, I want to come”- with this ‘wall’ the feeling is even more chaotic & intensely lashing in its intent, though personally, I found it a little ill-defined & messy in its attack. Here we find a galloping mid-range roast- this is edged with rushing wash of static, together these elements create almost an white out of sound. If you focus on the mid-range you do get a fairly effective feeling of un-balancement- but this wasn’t enough to keep me held in & engrossed by the whole thing. So while the track certainly follows on with a similar vibe to the first track, it all just felt too messy & undefined for my liking.
In finishing I certainly enjoy Madame Delbčne more than some of this projects stand-alone releases- with Hammarsted certainly managing to create a consistent feeling of searing intensity throughout the tape. I just felt the second side rather went a bit too far- meaning as a listening experience it switched from been intensely appealing to shapeless whiteout. Roger Batty
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