Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Fouke - Black Lake [Burial Recordings - 2012]

“Black Lake” is the latest slice of Bigfoot themed walled noise from this Richard Ramirez project.  The release comes in the form of a C45 tape, and it features three tracks in all- one on side A & two on side B.

Fouke has long been one of my favourites of Mr Ramirez’s many projects- because each release mangers to conjure up a brutal yet atmospheric vibe of the Big foot, or been stalked by one. And also I’ve been intrigued for many years by the legend of the Big foot, from it’s many sightings around the world & of course the many moives/docs about the subject.

This release seemingly takes it’s title from  the 1976 US movie “Creature from Black Lake”, and the movie told the story of a group of fishermen that  are attacked in the Louisiana swamps. When the word gets out that a mysterious Bigfoot-type creature was what attacked them, two researchers come to a small town to study and hopefully discover what the beast is.

Side A features just one track “Tsul 'Kalu”( which is the Cherokee name for Big Foot). The track starts off with a muffled mixture of night-time woodlands sounds, and an American man talking about believing in Bigfoot’s. Then pretty soon we drop into the ‘wall’ which is a great  active mixture of brutal bass bound buffeting, mid-range juddering static races/ gallops, & this weird chattering animalistic texture that pops up time to time.  Around the five & half minute mark we drop down to another very muffled recording of the same man talking about some one stalking a Bigfoot, but pretty soon the noise engulfs the sample again. When the ‘wall’ comes back in again it’s a more searing & rapid attack than it was before, with this galloping/ racing mixture of  semi aquatic & roasting tones, which brought to mind a raging flight with a bigfoot in a body of water. By the 8th minute a billowing intense bass bound judder & roasting textured bound has over taken, and this has nice brutal skipping 'n' juddering mid-tone static lines going through it. Once again around the 9.30 mark a now total mangled tape recording sample pops up stuck in the ‘wall’, but this doesn’t last long &  we return back to the roaring bass lined billow & static judder type ‘walling’.  The rest of the twenty minute track finds Ramirez skilfully petering the ‘wall’ back to almost AWN territory, and then backing up again to raging/ battering searing walled noise attack- with this great churning ‘n’ stalking static grain running through it, this sounds like something ferreting 'n' roaming through woodland.  The track finishers with more  muffled recoding of the man talking about someone stalking a Bigfoot.


Over onto side B, and first up we have “Ape Canyon”, and this finds some very muffled interview or film dialogue with a hunter talking about his dog barking at night. Then  at just over the minute mark the ‘wall’ slams in, & it’s  a very urgent mixture of buzzing ‘n’ juddering mid-tone noise wall- that sounds like something huge been electrocuted & jerking on a huge metal rack.  This track comes in at near the three minute mark. 

Lastly we have “Return To Black Lake” which starts with another dialogue sample with a man saying ‘ I don’t  want you Yankee boys saying one word about that creature, it just scared the devil out of my wife’ , then we’re into the ‘wall’ which is a  highly urgent/ roasting mix of billowing flare like mid-range texturing that weaved with stalking ‘n’ jittering more white-out static texturing. The ‘wall’ starts to nicely ease back & shift down a gear, as if it might go ANW….yet it never does, but instead creates this nice roasting Continued descent.


So this is another rewarding, brutalizing & atmospheric slab of walled noise from the Fouke project. Sadly this sold out in the blink of an eye as it was only ltd to a scandalous ten copies….so it’s ether see if you can hunt down a copy on discogs, or hope one day soon some switched on label will decided to reissue the entire works of this great project.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Fouke - Black Lake
“Black Lake” is the latest slice of Bigfoot themed walled noise from this Richard Ramirez project.  The release comes in the form of a C45 tape, an...
190324   Pierre Jodlowski - Séries fo...
180324   José María Sánchez-Verdú - K...
180324   Celer - Cursory Asperses
180324   Burial Ground/ Nights of Terr...
150324   Uncodified - Erased People
150324   The Residents - Secret Show (...
130324   Dagr - Dagr (ltd-theatrical/ ...
130324   Ignaz Schick & Oliver Steidle...
120324   Math - Utterblight
120324   OdNu + Ümlaut - Abandoned Spaces
Latest Articles

Sutcliffe No More - Normal Everyd...
Sutcliffe No More are a British two-piece bringing together Kevin Tomkins & Paul Taylor. Formed in 2021, it’s the spin-off project/ next sonic step...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
050523   Bill Morroni - The Trials & ...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom