Âmes Sanglantes means ‘bloody souls’. Nowhere else in Âmes Sanglantes' sprawling and massive wild/punk/junk discography has this idea been more focused than on the epic and original 'Chindia Tower Impalements,' as well as on cult tapes like ‘Anti-Anti,’ ‘Mega Star Barbies,’ ‘Violation,’ and the immense and impossible 12-hour-long ‘Crackdown’ cassette box from Hospital Productions last year.
Originally
released as a triple cassette of only 66 copies, this newly remastered
version is the definitive document revealing the cruelty of the
Wallachian landscape myths and realities. Dracula vs. Vlad Tepes…
Caustic,
brittle, and eerie, the 6 long-duration tracks secure Âmes Sanglantes
as one of the most original and overlooked extreme electronic monikers
of the 90s North American cassette underground.
Distorted
but textural where the voices of young androgynous screams mingle
together with chirping birds and wolf breath. It’s the subtle layering
and tape splicing structure beneath the crust that elevates this above
the average ‘noise’ recording. You will have to dig and claw past the
walls built out of clay bricks, but beyond that is a rich and subtle
world of loops equal parts Georges Braque and William Basinski, like
collapsing scaffolding melting and crumbling on top of each other. This
is rotting electro-acoustic studies where one can see a portrait float
to the surface in the rippling and muddy puddles.
Shockingly,
after nearly 100+ cassette-only release since 1996, this comes forward
as the first Âmes Sanglantes compact disc. A true student of the 90s,
you’ll find a stunning presentation that is equal parts in reference to
Cold Meat Industry as well as Japan’s Alchemy Records.
It
comes housed in an 8-panel foil block digipak, with expert mastering by
Paul Corley (Oneohtrix Point Never, Ben Frost, Prurient).
So
open up the old CD changer, light a few candles, and a pour the red
wine for an epic that revives the imagination of times lost and losses
yet to come.