Rien — The Soundboard Tape
The clear shelled cassette tape comes in a double-side Black & White sleeve- this features on its outside very minimal white text against a plain black backdrop. On the inside we get a nicely moody & stark picture of the live performance. And the whole thing comes inside a small clear baggie. This tape appeared on the SoundScape 713 label , in a edition of twenty five copies- and I believe there maybe just one copy left.
The track opens with a tight-yet-stark mesh of slowly bucking & slightly bubbling bass rumble, that underfed by this weave of smaller jittering static play. As the track progresses the initial elements stay fixed, but you get some slightly & subtle play on each- the bass tone shifts between more tense & barren like rumble, stark rattle, deeper bubbling churn, and semi-grainy descent. While the static play seems to become slightly looser, more spiting, and hazed. In it’s last few minutes the bass texture thins back, with the static play becoming more open & bleak- all ending the whole thing on an almost barren ambient tone. The whole ‘wall’ is a wonderful focused slice of wall-craft, which sits somewhere between pared back, & slurred HNW weight-ness, and stark textured noise study.
Over the last two or so years Rien has been slowly but surely releasing an impressive body of work- that’s seen the project refine & deepen their stark, theme-less & weighty take on the walled noise form. Sadly like this tape many of the release where either tape swap only edition or ltd releases that sold out in the blink of an eye. Let's hope we get to see large editions from this project down the line, as they are really one of the most talented projects in today’s Euro noise scene, and The Soundboard Tape is another prime example of this.