Sumbru — Afterlife Signal

Afterlife Signal is a two set C60 release from Sumbru- which is the now main focus of respected & prolific French wall artists Julien Skrobek. The releases features four half-an-hour 'walls' , and each is imbedded with a bleak, grim, yet seared vibe.

The release came in the form of two separate clear cassette case. Each of theses feature a murky & monochrome single sided sleeve- these feature identical creepy pictures of a graveyard, and the projects scrawling logo. The whole thing has a very lo-fi black metal look about it, and at times very subtle hints of this can be heard with-in the ‘walls’ themselves. The release appeared mid-summer 2016, and sadly it’s now out of print…though you can still check out/ download at the labels band camp page.

Each of the four tracks here are untitled, and each comes in at spot on the thirty minute mark. The first track brings together a slow, muddy, and tumbling low-end, with a rolling & slightly off-kilter juddering. The whole thing creates a very bleak & starkly subterranean like vibe, as if one is making their way though a slowly moving & half lit cave network. It’s an ok opening shot that certainly sets the mood for the release, though I can’t say it’s my favourite moment here.

Moving onto the second side of tape one, and this track brings together two layers of tumbling ‘n’ buffeting textures. Tonal these are in fairly narrow lower-to-mid range, and together these create this great feeling of sludge bound murkiness. Once again there is a bleak subterranean feel here, but the way the textures are (seemingly) moving at slightly different speeds creates this feeling akin to watching a bubbling & ancient underground water-fall/ mudslide. Once again the textures are fairly simplistic in their range & pattern setting, but I just felt it was so much more captivating than the first sides ‘wall’.

The first side on tape two’s track brings together a great nasty ‘n’ slurred low-end, with a tumbling ‘n’ knocking descent. This ‘wall’ is wonderfully thick & slowly battering in it’s weighty attack- giving one the feeling that they are been buried in slow motion by a thick mud & rumble landslide. I really like the amassed-yet- sludge bound vibe of this ‘wall’, and of the four ‘walls’ here I’d say it’s my favourite.

Last up on the second side of tape we have the final untitled track. This brings together two or three layers of deep tumbling ‘n’ rumbling, with thinner jittering & snapping patter-nation. Once again it feels very subterranean & bleak in it’s feel, but I sadly felt it was the least effective of the four ‘walls’ here- as the selected textures just felt a little run-of-the-mill/ unremarkable. And sadly my attention waned fairly quickly.

So in summing up Afterlife Signal- you can certainly say that through-out this release Mr Skrobek has managed to create a bleak & grim vibe, that often feels murky & subterranean in it’s unfold. Sadly I felt the consistency of the ‘walls’ themselves rather varied- so it’s certainly not one of my favourite of Mr Skrobek output, but on the whole it’s an acceptable release.