DANIEL MENCHE - Primal Fictions LP (Ferns, 2020)
Furnace Fucker and all that, excellent stuff. But to me he's better than ever nowadays, and has been for years. This LP is a cathedral of chiming tones, with vibrating drones of all sorts worming their way through its halls. At times almost threatening in atmosphere, but most of all beautiful throughout. The flipside, while keeping the cathedral-like resonance, has an air of nighttime desert. A powerfully amplified one that is.
There's alot going on at all times on this record. For the most part, that is a strength, with so many unexpected combinations of sounds colliding (amplified rubber band, field recordings, percussion etc next to metal chimes and whatnot), but there are moments when I feel it would have been even more majestic had he stripped off some layers and left just a couple dominate on their own. All in all though, what a great record!
And to my surprise I noticed that Ferns had slipped an older release into the jacket as a bonus (Again! Not the first time they've done that.):
DANIEL MENCHE - Blood Of The Land 3" CD (Ferns, 2010)
A massive wall of, well, wind! Rain on buckets, the occasional animal sound, dust and dirt. Not too far from what Romero did on Negative, in a way. "Storm recordings (...) mixed and mastered (...) in the analog domain", absolutely stunning stuff. Need to play this one real loud when I get the chance.
As for this being a freebie, heh... pressed in 500 copies in 2010. My memory isn't the best, but I have no recollections of 3" CDs in flimsy paper covers being all the rage back then. But I'm very glad to have this!