Cellule Africaine - self Titled [African Audio Documents - 2013]“Cellule Africaine” presents the listener with a single thirty minute slice of raw ‘n’ lo-fi analogue HNW. This release is the second release from twenty four year old Pierre N, and his label African Audio Documents. This French HNW label themes all it’s releases around the violence, dubious politics, twisted sexuality, & mass killing that has taken place on the African Continent. And In particular “Cellule Africaine” is themed around the illicit weapon sales that took place between France & Angolathe in the mid 1990’s. The single untitled track on offer here comes in at dead-on the thirty minute mark, and the ‘wall’ is a very no nonsense slice of fixed HNW. Apparently the track was recorded live, and you can very much hear that as it has a very stark & lo-grade feel to it. The ‘wall’ it’s self is a mixture of rapid mid-range juddering that’s underfed fed by fixed billowing white static rush. The whole thing has quite a crisp & coarse rushing vibe to it, & also due to the lo-fi nature of the recording the ‘wall’ has an almost mono feel to it. I can’t say this grabbed me in the same way Pierre N’s first release did(Effacer Le Tableau - Self Titled), but the track did have a certainly lo-fi charm to it. I think the main issue for me was, it just felt too long- if the ‘wall’ had been cut in half, & Pierre had added in a second slightly different sounding wall- this would have been some much more rewarding. Roger Batty
|