[reviews] afe073lcd
ninth desert: different trouble experiences of twilight

This offers up five bone chilling, shudder making, creepy but you're not quite sure why, dark ambient/edgy sound worlds. Each track seems to slide and creep its way out of your speakers, its shadowy form almost taking shape ready to pounce, but then falls away once more.

You see, real fear is not seeing the monster or the gore, real fear it's not quite knowing what it is and that feeling of deep down fear in your very guts. And this manages that edginess wonderful through out, never showing you fully the monster face, spilled entrails or battered flesh. You just see flashes, or edges of the real monster and its aftermath.

Ninth Desert is Frenchman's Cyril Herry new project, in the past he's also been known as Ashes To Ashes, Sechres Mound (a duo in collaboration with Toy Bizarre), Lecanora and Exotoendo.

You can clearly hear Herry has great understanding of sound textures, how to construct them and how to time their entry and exit perfectly. This was all recorded mostly at nighttime and over summer 2005/ 2006. The most rewarding thing here is you're not exactly sure what he's using to make the grey and dread soak soundscapes, at times it could be guitar or electronics or manipulated sound sources.

It just seems very oil, organic and black as tar, like just catching the smell of decay on the wind. A very rewarding exercise in audio tension and fear, it's just such a pity it's only limited to an hundred copies. So act quickly and take big slice of nightmare pie from here.

[Roger Batty]