Fine slab of experimental industrial noise on Crash & Cross (4iB RECORDS 4iB CD/1021/066) – a collab. made by the long-deceased Z’EV and Julien Otttavi, aka The Noiser, from a time when the American percussionist had moved to Nantes, home of the Frenchman. May date from 2014 or 2015; it involved a mix of live and studio recordings, some percussion, and a fair amount of reworking and reprocessing as these two mavericks traded tapes over the counter.
Part of the plan is to blend different times and different places together on the same tape, and create confusion about who’s doing what, whether it’s live or studio, and so on. This kind of back-and-forth way of working was quite common in the 1990s, I seem to recall, and the cover art here of rusted metal and close-ups of lichen on stone likewise feel somewhat retro. There’s a booklet of colour photos, and though these are dramatic and action-packed images of our heroes at work, I suspect they are not documents of this record, and rather drawn from previous unconnected live escapades.
Despite title of release suggestive of a collision, and the reputations of both players for sometimes stepping outside the safety area, this isn’t an especially violent or confrontational set of work. Rather the abiding mood seems to be one of tension, sullen brooding, seething and depression. These and other nameless emotions are never quite resolved, and the listener hangs in an uncomfortable state of anticipation, awaiting release. From 21 March 2023.