Dapnom
Actes Préalables
5.2
I don’t know, man. Maybe I’m just not evolved enough or something, but I’m having a hard time getting past the obvious, first impression layer of Actes Préalables. Namely, that this is just a bunch of noise. Correction—it’s not really a bunch of noise as much as it is only noise, but for a really long time. Billed by Insidious Poisoning as “dark meditative and ritualistic terror ambient,” the latest offering from Dapnom--who’ve been making dark meditative ritualistic terror ambient for some time, it seems—doesn’t feel ritualistic, and the word terror would have never crossed my mind. Plain old darkened ambient music is what you’ll find on Actes Préalables, an album not nearly as dense, dynamic or disturbing as I’d hoped. On the other hand, it offers up a heaping double serving of the stuff, clocking in at a disc-filling seventy-nine minutes. An opening nine-minute, er, song, is followed up by three twenty-two-plus minute numbers. These tracks may or not be the same song presented three times.
In all seriousness, what do you want from me, folks? By now you’ve figured out what this album is all about, and whether you’re the slightest bit interested. Dapnom deliver nearly an hour and a half of hums, tones, bumps, whirs, and swirling atmospheres, next to none of it organic, and all at varying volumes. I could add some hyperbole, but really, what’s the point? There are lots more albums to review, and it seems like I’ve heard this one before. When the noises begin to really stack up, like on the ass-end of “Ert Bvrueazv”, the album rewards. But that doesn’t happen nearly enough, especially given the runtime of this beast. Still, Actes Préalables isn’t a failure, because it does have some success in its own skin. Genre enthusiasts might find this a worthwhile, if hardly mandatory purchase, but for most of us, an album such as this is a role-player in our collection. You probably need one or two to break out on those rare occasions, and although you could do worse, you could also find better.
