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 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

Hoggle - The Oubliette [Oktomedia - 2012]

“The Oubliette” is 6th release from this Santa Fe based HNW project that themes all of it’s work around the 1980’s classic Jim Henson family fantasy puppet/live action movie The Labyrinth. This two set C32 releases takes it’s name from the French word for dungeon with an opening only at the top, which is mentioned in the film.

The two tapes cases come in a card slip sleeve, and each tape features fairly low grade black on yellow thin card printed artwork that takes in pictures from the movie. Each of the full copies of this release come with a copy of the  bracelet the films heroine gives to Hoggle( the grumpy and obstinate dwarf that leads/ helps the films heroine around The Labyrinth)..sadly my promo copy didn’t come with one.


Each of the four sides of tape features a single dense & mostly bass battered slice of unmoving walled noise, and each track features quirky samples from the movie at it’s beginning & end. 

First up on side A we have “A Familiar Face Emerges From The Blackness”, and this track is built around a huge sounding & truly battering bass judder ‘n’ billow that is bayed by thinner jittering ‘n’ knocking sub-tones & crisp lines of jittering static.  The brutal bass judder does shift slightly along the tracks length, as do the sub-tones- but these shifts are fairly minor, with the ‘wall’ staying very battering yet engrossing through-out. It’s a good start to the set.

Over on side B we have “An Explanation To The Naïve”, and this track is built a rapidly jittering ‘n’ juddering bass bound noise texture that has a thinner shunting/ galloping texture on top of it…..though in it’s last few minutes it does seem to feel more like a mixture of billowing bass drone & jittering lines a dense static. This track feels a little more simplistic than the first track, but it’s non the less effective in it’s attack, and it also feels a little more direct too in it’s attack, though maybe not as battering.

Side C is taken up by “An Offer Is Made”, and this track is built around a truly ball busting ‘n’ rapid bass billowing noise tone, which has on top of it a slower & out of pattern selection of crunching, jittering & spluttering elements. At times this second element almost sounds like weird alien or dwarf like slurred guttural chattering, which of course is most effective for the projects theme.


And lastly on side D we have “A Deal Is Stuck”, which is made of a slight more ranging/storm like ‘wall’. Once again a battering bass bound tone is the centre of the action here, and around this a brutal swaying/ whipping thinner grain texture. The bass tone has a locked & simple like billow to it, and the other thinner texture brings to mind a constantly baying sandstorm like feel and this element is a little more shifting in it’s attack. All told it’s another effective ‘wall’.


So “The Oubliette” offers up four consistent & bass bound ‘walls’ that mainly fall into the fairly fixed & set side of ‘wall-making”. This release comes in an edition of 25 copies, so if you into bass bound & brutal HNW you’ll hopefully still be able to pick up a copy.

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Roger Batty
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