12″, Sound on Probation, 2010
http://www.soundonprobation.com/
So hard to put my finger on it, this album does remind me of something, but the name just won’t come up. But before listening for the gazillionth time it strikes me: It doesn’t actually matter!
Before me is a new 12″ by Cape Fear, entitled “Winds Of The Dead Air”. The vinyl counts five tracks of which only one doesn’t reach the 8 minute mark and each of them are gorgeous atmospheric beauties, based on guitar sounds and electronic music in the most broad sense of its meaning.
Cape Fear is none other than the guy we should now no longer address as ‘the guy’: as he is the man Laurent Perrier. As Cape Fear he released a CD on Odd Size in 1997 (“Drift Towards The Heat”) but I can’t tell you anything about the sound on that one. If it’s anything like “Winds Of The Dead Air” it will be worth it, no doubt about that.
On “Winds Of The Dead Air” we hear music which, time-wise, could very well be placed in a period in between the 90’s and the 00’s. Slow buildups, very nicely structured compositions, sometimes following ‘song-structures’ and sometimes following ‘soundscape-structures’. The track “Crack of Dawn” even has a vocal part by Laurent Perrier himself with lyrics by Samia Doukali (who we could already hear on another project of Laurent, namely Heal’s “Extension”).
Some tracks are throbbing guitars slowly creeping up your spine, and others are maybe more based on synth sequences, but there is always a lot of tension in the works.
With all material being composed and performed by Laurent himself, it becomes hard to perform in another way then laptop-ism or knobbism with some live guitar and keys. Which is maybe a shame, because if this – as a band – would play live, it would turn heads and make a great show. Think post-rock, pre-electronics, post-wave, but foremost: brilliant!
[8.5/10]
— Bauke