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LE MORTE DE LA MER First Try Le Morte de la Mer is a collaboration between Destin Le Blanc, otherwise known as Turk Knifes Pope and Jim Kaiser (Petit Mal) - two of the main acts from the Zenflesh stable. Individually both are capable of much: Turk Knifes Pope's most recent (1998) excursion, Performance Crippling Data Restriction, was an epic journey into thunderous electronics, building on his earlier Mad Dog album, a murky, ominous affair. Petit Mal's 'Covering the Exposed' was my second-favourite track on Zenflesh's excellent Amduscias compilation (just behind Noise/Girl and just ahead of RH Yau) and his more recent A Distance Quietly Removed - which will be reviewed next month - is an intense, absorbing document. Joined together the two acts have produced a sprawling, formless album of menacing guitar electronics. Of the nine tracks the twenty minute long 'Go Ahead', distinctly reminiscent of the Mad Dog disc, is a massive hypnotic drone that obliterates everything around it and leaves the listener incapable of rational thought or useful movement. The subtle shifts and balances that take place throughout the track confound a first impression of one gigantic scuzzy loop. This is music that needs careful listening, for - as with many Zenflesh recordings - within the bludgeon there lies a rapier. 'Fatal Flaw' and 'Occasional Rights' remind me of nothing so much as the frantic strumming of Japanese death folk protagonist Kengo Iuchi. 'Poorly Planned' is well-executed. 'Burning Out' sounds like a freight train going through a tunnel. 'Pilloried' is longish and quietish, 'Sleeping Death' short and noisy. 'Sleeping Beauty' sounds not unlike 'Go Ahead'. 'The Eighth Manic Depressive Wonder' follows on from 'Pilloried' in much the same vein. The nine tracks together form a cogent whole, and Le Blanc and Kaiser make a lucid duo. All in all a mournful, oppressive sort of record, which has me in mind of rusting machinery under heavy skies, industrial processes undertaken for no reason or benefit, pointless rituals, wasted energies. No such waste here though. This one is fully focused. STEWART GOTT - 3 October 2000 fluxeuropa |