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Band: Roto Visage Album: La Muse Cachée Album Year: 2006 Label: kikapu Genre(s): Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental Band Website: http://www.rotovisage.com Download From: http://www.rotovisage.com/muse.html Review Date: 12-06
Rating: 8/10 tracklist:
01. spiral ignite flesh
La Muse Cachee is the latest offering from experimental/dark ambient project Roto Visage. Roto Visage offers up something akin to his usual blend of dark ambient and experimental electronica; there are a plethora of dark pads and a thick dark atmosphere that carries throughout the album. On this album, once again, the listener can see Roto Visage's trademark use of insane sounds, usually strange bastardizations of vocal tones, although this time around I feel like he did a much better job with regard to these sounds' placement; the sounds are used in in a way that allows them to blend into the track instead of being noticeably apart from it. I feel like they successfully mesh with the dark atmosphere and add to the overall creepy feel. Overall I would say that La Muse is a huge step up from Roto Visage's previous dark ambient offering Der Golem. This time around the listener is subjected to a but more drone; the songs are longer and at times more cohesive than past work. For the most part the songs work with a single atmosphere and build and develop it throughout the song, the execution of which I find is much more successful this time. The songs are made up of a good deal of minimal drone, but there are still numerous subtleties which really keep the work interesting and pulls the listener into this world of sludge and darkness. Although, this is not to say that every track is the same at all. The intro track, "spiral ignite flesh", for example is completely unlike anything else on this record. On one hand I'm apt to say it's not the ideal intro because it is so different, but on the other hand I want to say that it is the perfect intro. It throws off any preconceptions the listener may have had going into this album. It is diverts from dark ambient to being completely experimental; throwing in all sorts of nonsense that one would and perhaps could never expect. The song concludes with some amazing piano work, which I certainly never saw coming, but I am so very glad it did. The songs later on the album contain extended samples of human speech; this is a welcomed addition to the work, and for the most part the samples fit in and serve to add to the already meditative air about the work. However, the beginning of the vocal sample on "smudge" really got on my nerves and tore my attention away from any kind of meditative state I had attainted. One thing I am glad to report is that there are no large scale downfalls to this album. Obviously due to the fact that is a dark droning ambient album, it will require a certain state of being from the listener, but I find that I was quite pleased with the majority of the work that this album offered. Normally I am not a particularly big fan of drone, but I can tell that this is drone done well and I can respect that. It is a very dark journey, but was well worth the trip. I am glad to see Roto Visage evolving and continuing to progress in his work, and I hope that this album is a sign of things to come. La Muse Cachee is a very introspective and meditative work and as previously stated, I believe that the listener has to be in a certain mindset to absorb the full breadth of the work. However, if that criteria is met, than this abysses of the album will open up and reveal their truly deep and wonderful nature. I know that Roto Visage has some new material to be released on Hydra records and I can only hope that the cycle of evolution continues and the work continues to improve over the course of time.
-[.d4n b4rr3tt.] december 2006
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