Various Artists — BAVE
The collection takes it’s name from the first letter of each project involved, and also the word in French means to dribble, slobber, slaver, drool, ect. Like all the other releases on this French HNW label, the boxes outer artwork features an atmospheric black and white photograph. And for this release it’s a close up of what looks like aged, weather and environmental worn stone- very fitting for the cold battering grey walls inside. When you open up the box you find an double-sided black & white inlay which details the tracks, and the discs themselves have simplem but effective hand written letters on each of them that relates to the inlay.
On the first disc( disc B) we have Bördel Noïr who offer-up three tracks that are entitled “Bave 1, 2 and 3”. So up first we have “Bave 1” which is an just over twenty minute track that features a mid-paced droning ‘n’ roaring judder that’s skipped and jumped over by these smaller static elements in a very rewarding and hypnotic manner. The tracks main droning ‘n’ roaring judder does'nt really alter or shifting along the tracks path, but the skipping static patterns remain fairly constant in there spit and spotting feel. It’s a great start to the set and a very moorish/ active wall too.
“Bave 2” is the longest track on this disc at just over the forty minute mark and this finds Bördel Noïr offering up a tighter looped juddering drone that’s scraped and foxed by shifting grains of jittering static that nicely go from been very dense and ripping, down to more sparse and spotted, onto seared and forking . Lastly we of course have “Brave 3” – this track comes in at just over the 15 minute mark and is built around a fast ‘n’ rolling locked pattern static jitter that’s under run by stuck almost industrial type droning tone; again it’s another very appealing and hypnotic slice of wall-making.
Onto two (Disc A) and we have Å’s disc which features one long hour long track that’s entitled “c’est toi le maître, c’est toi le criminel, et, ironie, c’est toi l’esclave, c’est toi la victime” which according to Google translator means in English “It is you the Master, it is you the criminal, and, irony is, it is you the slave, it is you the victim”. The track consistent of one long, locked and unrelenting wall that’s built around repetitive and muffled drone meets looped ‘n’ locked static jitter. It’s simple, but very effective and bleakly hypotonic in it’s hours brutal unfold.
Onto disc three (Disc V) and we have the Vomir disc/ track which is entitled “La Semaison” ( in English Sowing time). The track only lasts just over the sixteen minute mark, and it conists of a fair typical but rewarding vomir mid-paced crude ‘n’ juddering sewage pipe roaring repetition. But intriguingly it's all under feed by this distant tolling harmonic gong or bell like pitch, you can’t really make out which it is, but it’s definitely there and it really pulls you deeper into the tracks violent sonic vortex.
So lastly onto disc four and we have two tracks from écoute la merde tracks. First of these is entitled “dépersonnalisation” which is not really HNW, but more of a Harsh noise based track. The near on thirty minute track is built around a series feed-back sustains ‘n’ sears, effect peddle pitchs ups ‘n’ downs and the odd electro noise texturing moments. The track really zips up and down from one tone/ pitch to the next over it’s half an-hour running time. It sounds like it’s been made using guitar and effects peddles, it’s ok I guess if you like this kind of thing but it rather lost my interest after about ten or so minutes,as it’s nothing really new or original.
Lastly we’re back in more HNW terrority with the forty six minute track “Déréalisation” which finds écoute la merde building a mixture of rolling feed-back pitch, muffled hissing dwell and later more subdued jittering static sound sheens. The track has quite a murky and ghostly feel about it, but to my mind it’s not purely a HNW track as the feed-back pitch moves up and down quite often, and at times there’s a more grainy industrial drone feel to the track. So I guess it's best call it ghostly industrial drone with wallish moments. On the whole this disc is the least rewarding out of the four disc, but not purely because it doesn’t fit into the HNW bracket; the material here just isn’t up to the same standards as the other discs in the set, and I can’t really see myself wanting to playing this disc again, which I certainly will be doing with the other discs in the set.
So in summing this four disc set is a very worthwhile collection and insightful look at the French HNW scene, it’s just a pity the last disc rather lets things down somewhat, but this is just minor complaint as the other three discs more the make-up for this.