Laurent Perrier - Downfall/Disperse

Laurent Perrier is my first encounter with France's "Sound on Probation" label. Not to be confused with the champagne of the same name, Laurent Perrier is best known for his work in the project Zonk't.

With this double CD, (2 tracks, each one just under an hour long), Laurent Perrier offers us the finest in brooding minimal Drone.

Downfall is an ugly number, discourteous Drone steadies the track for the first ten minutes, before the disc takes a U-turn, and although the drone continues, it is interplayed with some infrequent but complimentary Electronic drum patterns. This does everything right that a Drone track should do right, it meanders and changes every ten minutes or so, just before twenty minutes into the track, the volume increases and there's some very pleasing echoes and aesthetics.

Twenty five minutes into "Downfall" and the disc almost becomes a noise album, with hideously loud and unwelcoming distortion, before a huge wall of electronic noise petrifies (and quite frankly scared the shit out of me) towards the end of this Monolith. So far, so good.

Disc two, "Disperse" starts off a little more upbeat, fast Electronic Pulses wash over a scratch of electronic static, as the track takes very unorthodox directions. Highlight goes to the part ten minutes in where a high pitched sample of wonderful electrical threat loops, and that sudden build up of noise attacks all of the senses.

This is so open to discussion, you can imagine looking at a black and white photo of a Russian Transformer Station, and then actually entering it, closing your eyes, listening to millions of Volts of Electricity surround you, and finally becoming its final conductor.

Slightly better than "Downfall", but both discs are very enjoyable, and lovers of Power Electro and Noise can not fault this at all. Dec 01 2006