CD, .Angle.Rec., 2008
www.myspace.com/tvskinwell
.Angle.Rec. is one of those labels that doesn’t stop being intriguing. Somehow they just keep on finding the hidden treasures and well-kept secrets, and they offer them a chance to be heard. In the past we’ve been able to hear, for example, The Missing Ensemble, Grzgl, LCDEP, Nos Royaumes and Vromb. With this latest release from the new project, Skinwell, another secret door has opened to a realm from where we never heard before.
Skinwell is a project from, for me, the unknown Christian Corvellec and Martin Dumais, who we know from Aun (releasing mostly on Oral). The result is a tension-filled combination built from heavily manipulated layers. There are sounds for which the origin leaves a lot of room to be discussed, and at other moments, heavy guitar-drone layers, which bring back memories from Maeror Tri of the noisy output of Troum. This is an album that does not have one boring moment, because every track has something different than the others. There is a lot of exploration to be done, which is one of those things of which I spoke earlier; that’s what makes an .Angle.Rec. release so specific.
The playtime of the first seven (out of eight) tracks is between four and nine minutes, which is a good length for the type of music (experimental guitar-ambient-noise). The last track, however, is the epic sixteen-minute “Grim Coast”, which is the least experimental, but it is a truly gorgeous ever-developing drone.
With albums like “Tunnels” you can only dream of living in Quebec and being confronted with this beauty day after day after… Wait, hold on… You could also just order it!
[9/10]
— Bauke van der Wal