Here we have a recent walled-noise split, bringing together two respected French projects. We have Toulouse based Chier , and Julien Skrobek’s new project Drops From a Liquid Corpse. Both projects here offer up a decidedly shifting, progressive, and rather necro focused take on the walled noise form.

This split appeared as a digital download as a self-release via Drops From A Liquid Corpse Bandcamp (here). So no really packaging to discuss, aside from the cover which features a close-up of a cracked & decaying wall, with the projects day-glow green underground metal type logos on top.

If you have even a passing knowledge of French walled-noise scene, you should know both of these projects( or a least whose behind them)- but if your new to the scene here’s a brief refresher. Chier started off in 2015, and for a few years it was releasing multiple releases each month- gaining a name for itself with creative-yet-brutal walled noise. Around 2019 the release slowed to a drip, then Chier went on hiatus- this split is its first release since then. 
Julien Skoberk has been active since 2011 in the ‘wall’ scene- releasing a large body of work under numerous project names, some of the more notable been Ghost, Gesis, Sumbru, Static Park & Sihir. Shoberk has both been inventive/progress with his wall work, but equally, he’s recording old/school walled noise. With this new project Drops From A Liquid Corpse, he’s been both progressive/ experimental-yet-necro focused, but in more of a gurgle-bound noise-grind feel, but without the metal element( if that makes sense!).

All the tracks four tracks here- one from Chier, and three from Drops…- are untitled. And first out of the bag is the Chier track, which slides at nine minutes and forty-one seconds mark. The track opens with a blend of muffled sluggish rumble and chalky static rattle. At around the two forty mark a dry-but-rapid hiss appears, and out this we get this cascading bubbling texture turns up. As the track progresses we move into a blend of more choppy flesh like gallops & beaded/ dusty static rattles, this is broken up textures droping in & out, sudden extra textural rushes, and pattern shifts. All told it’s great to hear new work from Chier, and I must say it’s great as always.

Next, we of course have the three Drops From a Liquid Corpse tracks- these last between two and five minutes. The first track is the shortest of the bunch- it brings together layers of murky bubbling, one is deep & murky, the other is rapid & mid ranged, with the addition of a few rattle/ bobbing tones. The next track is slight more formally wall noise- with it’s a blend of deep crude rattle, judder and latter burred spin,  with an undercarriage of rapid bubbling/poping liquid tones. The track creates a nice feeling of cold winding & dank dungeon-like enclosement, but at this point, the bubbling tones feel a little too repetitive in their flow. Lastly, we have the final Drops….track here we find a blend of extreme crude rumbling rips, and piping rattles- this track brings to mind some sort of extremely nasty liquid, funnel & tube torture. All three tracks here show some interesting/ different ideas at work- I can’t say the first did too much for me, but the other two are most effective- I just wish they’d been a little longer.

In finishing this certainly an intriguing split, that’s trying to do something a little different with-in the walled noise. I do hope we get some more new Chier down the line, and it’ll be interesting to hear how Drops develops.