Vomir — Maisonbruitarchive (cdr boxset)

“Maisonbruitarchive” is a wonderfully put together & highly consistent four disc collection that takes in all the releases put out by the prolific French HNW legend Vomir on his own label, Maisonbruitar, between 2005 & 2007- every thing is here expect the material from four box set  Deliverance - The Living Dead Noise . The set features in total twenty one tracks, with each disc offering just over a hours worth of playing time.

First things first I must mention the excellent yet grimly simple artwork & packaging for the box set. The four discs come in a four disc dvd box that features on the outside black on white outer sleeve that features just a simple skull motif on the front, vomir’s name & the box set title. On the back of the we have the full track listing over the top of a line drawn picture of a half collapsed high-rise. All the texts on the cover & through-out the box set are mainly set in old English type face, which gives a nice bleak feel to the package.  Inside the box we have a double side card inlay; on the first side there’s a colour & black ‘n’ white collage of the covers of the original releases, and on the cards flip side  we have a  short write up about the collection by Vomir himself, and a list of which releases each track originally came from- strangely these don’t follow a chronological sequence from disc to disc, but I’m guessing it's laid out in the manner to make it more blanced & mixed in it’s playing time. Also featured in the box are two black & white stickers, and each of the four cdr’s are pro labelled too. All told it's a very well designed & put together bit of packaging.

So moving on the disc’s sonic content, and across the fours discs the tracks are quite varied in there construction & noise making template, which is  surprisingly considering Vomir’s usual promise of ‘no ideas, no change, no development, no entertainment, no remorse’ – but saying there’s variation doesn’t mean you’ll expect to hear Vomir doing other genres of sound…everything here is very much in the HNW to thick & mainly fixed Harsh noise genre. Over the twenty two tracks on offer here pretty much all the tracks are very consistent, bleakly rewarding, nihilistically surrounding and wonderfully world around you blanking.

I won’t go through a track by track review here as I think that might ruin the sets many surprises & high points; but here are a few of my present favourite moments from each disc.  From disc one there’s: the three minutes & ten seconds stark & muffled edginess of “Rien”  which mixes taut steam like juddering with rolling ball bearing like static texturing. The entrancing  and often quite complex textural layer shifting walled noise of “Encore” which for it’s just under twenty three minutes gives one the feeling of moving over an  subtle alter psychical  wall that expands as far as the eye can see. The wall is continually cascading with masses of sand, and it's surface is full with all manner of secret doorways and shifting panels that slowly move & alter as you drift over it.

Onto disc two: the  nine minutes thirty of “Meurs”  which creates a descending & grimly persistent rain/ water ‘wall’   which mixers slow drilling ‘n’ juddering mid-tone noise hypnotics with unbreakable static torrential rain downpours.

Onto disc three: The twenty three minutes of the discs opener “Con Chie Culture” which finds Vomir brewing up a  captivating yet stark & obsessive mixture of locked juddering layers that take in: mid pace static rollings & slight stuck wasp like textural loops. Around the 5th minute he adds in this quite piercing & debilitating muffled fog horn sustained, which over the rest of the tracks  life drills deeper into the tracks structure to create a great dental drill intensity in your head. The sweeping and almost harmonic pitched billowing & oscillating drone pitch based crushing wall judder of “Momifié Harshwall” that comes in just over the seven minute mark.

And lastly my current pick from disc four: The near on twenty seven minutes of “Untitled” which mixers together bleak churning static layer mesh with snippets of what sounds like buried and evil sounding  static robot voice like talking or slow textural sweeps- this track really mangers to suck you in yet slightly creepy you out too with the buried & subtle under placed elements. The taut and  grim  technological oppressive “Fillettestatic 2” which weaves a thick buzzing haze of running together blue electro lined judderings  into a pressing & overwhelming mass of body pining sound.

With out doubt “Maisonbruitarchive” is one of the HNW & noise highlights of the 2011, as  material here is so consistent & rewarding, plus most people wont have heard any of it before as all the orignal release came out in such ltd numbers. And of course the sets so wonderfully presented & thought out too, sadly this was  ltd to a criminally 50 copies that have now sold-out. Really any self respecting HNW fan can’t be with out this boxset!, so do all you can to track down a copy of this. Completely unmissble!!.