The Answer Is In The Beat

Ensemble Economique mega-post

December 15, 2013 at 10:25 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Ensemble Economique has been on my radar since Foxy Digitalis sent me a review copy of Standing Still, Facing Forward back in 2010. That album was a stunning collage of dark cinematic soundscapes and field recordings, and was totally different from the stoner-dub psych jams he released on the Psychical LP on Not Not Fun that very same year. Since then, he’s released a few tapes and CDrs, an LP on Dekoder, a split LP with Lee Noble, and he released an absolute ton of music in 2013, only half of which I’ve heard. First and foremost, however, is his newest NNF LP, The Fever Logic L.P., which is up there with Troller as the best darkwave release I’ve heard all year. Not quite as blown-out or horror-synthy as Troller, but instead, slowly paced rhythms and sad, sometimes strained vocals (like the desperate moaning of the titular phrase at the end of “We Come Spinning Out Of Control”). “The Night Air Burning” has beats approximating a heartbeat pulse, drizzling synths, whispered vocals, and dramatic thunder crashing. Laying the “dark and stormy night” imagery on pretty thick, but it’s so captivating and awesome. “Blindfold Me” sounds as trauma-inducing as its title, and “Into Nowhere Again” is just classic ethereal darkwave, with slow tremolo guitar and reverb-soaked vocals. “End Scene” has more chilly synth, rain and thunder, and last-dying-breath vocals, and is bleak enough to make you wonder if the artist even survived making this album.

Before Fever Logic came out, there was a split LP (on NO=FI Recordings/Sound Of Cobra) with Heroin In Tahiti, whose Death Surf is one of the best under-the-radar LPs of last year. EE’s side immediately seems to be influenced by that album, with tom-heavy drums pounding out a slow rhythm with sheets of guitar and more quiet, whispered vocals approximating EE’s take on HIT’s death-surf sound. It gets into darker, more cinematic waters by the end of the side, ending with the choked feedback of “Désir, Desire”. HIT’s side is called Black Vacation and continues that sort of accident-in-paradise vibe, alternating between hazy mirror-reflected lounge scenes with seagulls and palm trees, and dark pulsating space-outs/abduction. But then the mutant surf rhythms return, with twangy guitar meeting crawling industrial rhythms and synths. The album ends with sobbing, implying that this was a vacation where everything went horribly wrong.

Ending the year is two simultaneous EE releases on Denovali. Light That Comes Light That Goes is probably the more “proper” of the two, seeing that it’s being released on both CD and LP, and it has more songs on it. “Songs” being a loose description, of course, as these are dark dronescapes with disembodied samples and more chilling synth and guitar layers. “If You Need Help” floats a familiar “if you’d like to make a call…” operator message in turbulent dark drifting drone, turning its own message on its head. “Ksenia” balances French spoken vocals over rippling, comparatively calm synth. “As The Train Leaves Tonight” features similar French speaking over what sounds like a deconstructed version of Spandau Ballet’s “True”, with violently clattering drums. “Radiate Through Me” is more haunted darkwave, with soft vocal harmonies and drifting guitars.

Interval Signals is this week’s other EE LP, a vinyl-only release consisting of one 40-minute piece broken into sidelong parts. This one’s a journey through All India Radio, but combines Indian radio samples with blistering cold wind, chirping birds, and an eerie stillness. Regardless of what’s actually being spoken in these radio transmissions, the sounds they’re juxtaposed with make them all sound like black box recordings from a plane about to disappear into the void. The piano at the beginning of the second side makes everything more chilling.

This is all only the tip of the iceberg, there’s a picture disc on Dekorder, an LP on Shelter Press that includes versions of tracks released on a tape in 2011, and a tour CDr. And then there’s all of Brian Pyle’s work with Starving Weirdos and RV Paintings.