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Yellow Swans, "Mort aux Vaches"
The most appealing thing about Peter Swanson and Gabriel Saloman is that compared to other groups from the great noise trend of the mid 2000s was their devotion to the psychedelic power of sheer sound. They never followed the ultimately boring route of power electronics white-out nor the well-trodden path of post-industrial filth, instead their focus was on the shimmering edges of reality that lay between the layers of noise. Their contribution to Staalplaat’s Mort aux Vaches series is no letdown in this respect as the four untitled pieces on this CD shake my immediate reality to the point where it is almost possible to see through to the other side.
The opening piece sounds like a ropey tenth generation of a particularly loud Les Rallizes Dénudés bootleg, there is a guitar that is somewhat identifiable but everything is buried under the sound of the microphone breaking apart. The oversaturated recording is monstrous in its power and this inescapable but beguiling atmosphere persists for the length of the album. This immersion in sonic psychedelica reaches boiling point on the second piece, the duo reaching an intensity that should be an overload to the senses but the sensation of swimming through sound only increases.
As euphoric as the rest of the CD is, the final piece sees Swanson and Saloman pushing the music further out into the stratosphere. This last track is a rapturous 20 minute journey through space, slowly picking up speed and power until the earth is left far behind. On the surface, it is more of the same sheet metal guitar and murky electronics but there is a hidden force running beneath the music that makes it qualitatively different to the previous three pieces. It feels like Swanson and Saloman are putting their whole bodies and souls into the music, should anything go wrong there is a danger that they will be lost forever to us.
Psychic dangers aside, the biggest danger concerning this release is the CD destroying your stereo equipment. Granted, the packaging is another brilliant piece of work from Staalplaat; thick card with 3D graphics that look like they came straight from one of those sturdy picture books for toddlers. Unfortunately, the CD label is made from the same thick card and as such it will not play in most of the CD players I tried it in. I would not risk trying it in a slot-loading drive for fear that it would never come out and it was so tightly wedged in my laptop drive that it would not spin at all so caveat emptor.
Unfortunately this CD will not work in my PC so there are no sound samples, apologies!
