“This doombient.two is above all a work of perspicacity and passion for music”
1 a declaration of war 7:00 2 shapes of things to come 16:00 3 slow deaths 17:15 4 ground zero 10:38 doombient.music
(CD-R 63:35) (V.F.)
(Dark ambient industrial music)
Recorded at an EM Festival (Emil 2003), held in Langenfeld on March 15, Doombient.two is above all a work of insight and passion for music. This festival was held in some very difficult conditions which resulted in delays in the running of the festival, in addition of sound problems. But it was also a rewarding experience where the duo caused an unusual rise of decibels for a concert of EM, under the greedy eye of a mega strobe effect that would have put a few spectators unwell. Equipped with a Modular Moog, [´ramp] gave a strong concert in black decibels in a context that exploits industrial floating music, making of A Declaration of War an opus on the progression of angry and its opposite, the appeasement.
A slow breath turns into loud and aggressive sirens screams that travel on its reverberations. We have the vague impression of being lost in the bowels of a huge spaceship, stuffed with cosmic bugs. The atmosphere is more than dark! It's nothingness. A musical nothingness that modulates black shaded waves and crashes slowly, like in a paranoid slow motion. With the sufferings of hell, A Declaration of War pours into Shapes of Things to Come, which preserves the same state of nothingness on linear musical breaths. Stephen Parsick's soft piano makes its chords chime into the nebulosities, shifting the beauty of the darkness. A strange melody suffers from metallic distortions, demonstrating the placidity of our shadowy duo against the odes of sweetness. The slow dead arrive with the very amazing Slow Death. A dismal march where thin metal sheets are crinkled with ingenuity, creating a monster turbulence that drives heavy pulses and resonant à la Redshift, courtesy of the big Mark Shreeve's Moog sequencer. Atonic and immensely dark, Slow Deaths progresses on continual pulsations, imitating the human beats that are subject and waiting for this last beat. It's a dark procession coming from the clamors of a synth which has a more angelic choir try to appease it. An amazing work that reveals the subtleties of evil, in the face of good. Ground Zero is the calm after the storm, appeasement after the anger? Floating and hovering on metal dust, we find a gruff tranquility. As if anger still rumbled, despite Ramp's understanding of the ignorant's weakness.
Doombient.two; A Declaration of War is an intense opus, even scary by phases, with an extremely powerful sound.
According to data, the power of the decibels has exceeded some concerts of Motorhead and Nine Inch Nails. It took a monk job to remaster it and finally make this CD that does justice to the atmosphere of this concert and which has marked the small history of this festival. This dark and rather ambient than rhythmic opus is a confrontation and reflection between good and evil and reflects a growing anger at the greed of the senses and of people. A great [´ramp] , with its sense of creativity and its desire to explore all the sonic dimensions of its universe.
Sylvain Lupari (March 27th, 2007) ***½**
Available at [´ramp] Bandcamp