Tetsuo
– Eternal Respect. – cdr – self released. – 2019.
01
Access [13’07’’]
02
Levels [10’54’’]
03
Eternal Respect [13’14’’]
Tetsuo
is a new project by French artist Julien Skrobek, who is responsible for Abysse
amongst many other projects. These are Hardware live-sets that he tends to
favour, often in front of a small audience.
Years
ago, before I moved area, I used to catch the tram home at night. I would
always pass by this terraced house as I walked home from my stop. It looked
perfectly normal; nice nets, clean front wall space, painted window frames,
curtains and ceramic ornaments in the window. Upstairs there would always be a
dim blue light in the front bedroom and a slow techno beat could always be
heard at night, not much else ever accompanied it. It was never at an offensive
volume; the sound could be heard slightly, travelling out of the window into
the warm night air. It was beautiful, I always wanted to knock on the door and
ask what was playing. Were they playing minimal Techno or making it? This went
on for a few years until the beat never came back; did they move on, stop, pass
away, I’ll never know? It wasn’t uncommon to have people making or playing
electronic sounds in their houses in this area, there was just something
alluring about this one.
I
mentioned Abysse earlier, because Tetsuo treads the same noise/warped techno no
man’s land. I often wonder if there are any direct contemporaries to the
project. It reminds me slightly of Abysse, with a bit of subtle aggression
added to the mix. It also takes me back to the noises that came out of the
small house’s window. But this has slight noise and delicate wall properties that
make it very interesting to me. This is a subtle juxtaposition of slow beat, distorted
crackle and high-pitched feedback - it’s gentle but simmers away. The middle
track uses odd repetitive laser like sounds, high pitched feedback and
simmering distortion to about the maximum (or perhaps beyond) acceptable levels
of repetition. The last set is just a repeated single beat that resonate over a
distorted under base, the beat echoes on it and becomes the central focus
whilst stuff goes off in the background. By this point the boundaries of
repetition were crossed ages ago, I had to stay in the zone with the work.
What
I like about this work is it is typical Skrobek work of the present day in that
it’s released in tiny runs, content to be solely in his own odd thing that
doesn’t really sound like anyone else. The cover photo of flats looks great and appeals to me greatly. I like what I’m hearing and truly love the
wilful obscurity.
Choppy Noodles
2019.