Damien De Coena & Urge to Kill
The last time we reviewed HNW-maestro Damien De Coene was in 2020, with the Corona-inspired collab with Julien Skrobek. Urge to Kill is slightly new to me...but I know the guy behind the project. The same guy behind the aggressive power-electronics/harsh-noise project called Gyakusatsu, which I have also reviewed back in the day. Nevertheless, these two noise-mongers bang their heads together in a collision between HNW and harsh noise.
The limited ProCDR comes in a DVD-sized printed cardboard, with an attached plastic sleeve for the CD inside. The front cover shows a moss-covered forest in the background, with an image showing some holy saint sort of person (Could be Jesus offcourse). Could look like he is just trying to say... hello, while waving his hand. Inside you´ll see a multilayered photo of a metropolitan city, which could be Tokyo. If you take a closer look, the image of the saint can be seen as well. It´s a 60-minute-long noise journey, with each artist delivering 1 track each.
First track by Damien De Coene is called Irrational Inner Self-Defense. The sound of a blow torch and the crispy sound of blistering flames. A deep humming sound from some veteran airplane is present, and a whining drone ( way in the background! ) sounds like brakes on a train being used in a deep subway. I noticed a weird thing he really, was turning my head to get my potato chips... and the sound actually altered and I noticed another sound. Sounds like, a mine cart somewhere deep in the mines. Strange kind of 3D-surround thing going in here, but I like it! After halfway through, the humming airplane almost has... something in it that has a slight melody to it? Not melodic like in music offcourse!
The second track with Urge to Kill is called And Summer Will Not Come Again. The second it starts it goes directly after the throat. A repeated loop of an atomic blast with the sound of water trying to cool down warm metal. Kind of like, the sound of one of those HUGE industrial iron foundries. The sound of warm vents, hot bubbling liquid metal, steaming fumes... and something extra. Is there a sound of a human voice in there, a hissing human voice? The same kind of sound-altering element is in here as well, turn your head and you´ll notice a new sound. Lots of looped elements in here, which actually makes it kind of rhythmic and not just static. There is ALSO another sound here. A fan with a plastic bag on it, but you can't hear that sound if you turn your bloody head! The sensation of things getting warmer and warmer, always at the point of blowing up. That´s Urge to Kill to you.
Two VERY different approaches to HNW. One more on the subtle sort of way, and the other much more in your face... sort of. Both acts are very in it and will have the listener deeply submerged into the prober-made layered soundscapes. Continuously plasma being boiled and in the end being spit out from the mouth of the great sun! A non-stoppable force bound to warm you up on these cold winter days!
