Anne-James Chaton / Thurston Moore / Andy Moor - Heretics [Unsounds 54U]

Put on the circuit via the well artsy, often conceptual Unsounds label only recently is "Heretics", a box set created by long time collaborating artists Anne-James Chaton and Andy Moor which are joined by Ex-Sonic Youth singer and guitarist Thurston Moore. Keen to musically portrait radical heretical figures through poetry and music the whole extended set incorporates an eleven track audio album piece, a full on lyrics book as well as a 'Making-Of...' DVD piece by Benoit Bourreau documenting how this whole piece came together - and an additional quick match. Although we're not able to follow the specific meaning of the individual Spoken Word bits as we don't speak any French at all we're more than awed by the captivating intensity of the raw, often distorted and clearly PostPunk / (No)Wave referencing guitar playing that tells tales of monochromatic days, concrete and an overall tristesse, perfectly falling together with the vocal use and abuse, bringing in a more monotonous, documentary tone or coming across heavily interfered, distorted and noisy like old recordings from faraway radio or TV stations. This well-balanced combination of elements depicts the world in most fascinating shades of grey, perfectly reflects upon the anger and frustration that often lies within the world outlook of those practising heresy to its fullest, most radical extent - radically expressed and cast in the massive wall of sound and brutal distortion that makes for the in- and outro of the bilingual, stereo field exploring  "The Things That Belong To William" or the super energetic expressions of the subsequent greyscale bit entitled "Heidsieck's Chords" whilst "Coquins Coquettes Et Cocus" turns its inherent radicalisms into ruminant, hypnotic minimalism of more ritual nature, bringing artists like Eyeless In Gaza to mind due to the tunes' specific vibe. With "Poetry Must Be Made By All" the artist triumvirate even pays homage to loops and Industrial Music, serving a disturbing anthem for decaying basement dancefloors before "Le Songe De Ludwig" goes back to musical meditation and hypnosis. But these are only a few bits picked from what might be our favorite album of the past month so far. Highly recommended, not only for the music but also for the great 60+ minutes documentary which unveals quite a bit of the compositional process that lead to the recent form of "Heretics".

Album artwork on Instagram!

Unexpected album artwork glitch on Instagram!