composé de 2006 à 2007
publié en 2008 par ant-zen act 218 ww.ant-zen.com
Chroniques
Ant-zen This normandy project defines its very own universe including distinctive burton-esque graphic works and audio releases in vinyl and cd format. Provided with the typical romanic humour and french eccentricity, lingouf alienates those who are into ‘exact’ terminations and information while contemporaneously intriguing broad-minded audio and visual art gourmets. Lingouf’s first releases on the french ark-aik label might fit in the hardcore / gabber genre, area keloza can be seen as a manifold mixage between powerful pulsatile industrial, advanced deep tenebrous electronics and circus-like melodies with high recognition value. imagine a comparison with imminent, converter, somatic responses… add a slight intangible obscurity… then you’ll get a picture of what lingouf might be – or of what he might not. take a listen, watch lingouf’s visuals on his site, submerge into an unknown perspective of industrial arts – be caught and captivated at the same time at the area keloza! a true journey of insanity, with a brightly-coloured grim sense of humor.
Chainedlk http://www.chaindlk.com
The talent of the German Ant-Zen-label to hire some unexpected and hardly heard before is still unbreakable. The French act LINGOUF can look back on some releases out on the small Ark-Aik underground label, which mostly draw their musically ground based on Hardcore/Techno music. « Area Keloza » of course turns the music into a much wider dimension. It starts dark with several strange voice samples thrown into the Industrial soundscapes of the opener « Bioless Game », the collaboration with the Japanese Cyberpunk-artist KENJI SIRATORI takes some obvious fruits. While drowning into this obscure Industrial ambience, the abrasive rhythm work joins in and offers some satisfying results on a straight 4/4-basis. The straight orientation continues on « Harpman », which may can grow to a club favorite. The longer this album runs, the faster and more percussive-oriented the tracks mutate. The attached info sheet refers on names like CONVERTER, IMMINENT or SOMATIC RESPONSES as possible comparisons. Some elements of each mentioned acts can be surely discovered in LINGOUF, while an obviously obscurity hides behind it too. This may belongs on the fact that LINGOUF is more than a usual Industrial/Powernoise act, this project and its anonymous mastermind is also active as a visual artist. Some excerpts of the work can be discovered on the projects’ website mentioned above. « Area Keloza » features only 6 tracks, but all of them are clocking up to 10 minutes and more, so the term of a full-length album is nice fulfilled. As usual for Ant-Zen, also LINGOUF is a save candidate for 4 stars. Well deserved !
Connexion Bizarre http://www.connexionbizarre.net/ With “Area Keloza”, French hardcore/gabber artist Lingouf joins the ranks of the Ant-Zen catalogue. Recognized for his unique sound within hardcore and breakcore categories, Lingouf’s Vincent Ingouf is a competent visual artist as well, reflected both in the subversively cartoonish and imaginative album artwork, and in a fascinating website full of clever animations and hidden puzzles.
Although only six tracks are offered on “Area Keloza”, the majority of them sport longer running times than most found on previous albums. With the shortest track at eight-and-a-half minutes and the lengthiest stretching to twelve, the album gives listeners that much more square wave bang for their buck. Despite opting for longer pieces and fewer of them, Lingouf sticks to his stylistic guns, recasting the formula of his established work – chattering, overdriven beats versus rich atmospheric backing – with positive results. Despite the daunting prospect when faced with protracted, jittering tempests, listeners learn “Area Keloza” rarely becomes self-absorbed, only demanding.
Whilst opening track “Bioless Game” features cyberpunk fixture Kenji Siratori, this banality can be overlooked by scrutinizing Lingouf’s signature sound. From the outset, while Siratori mutters disturbingly in the background, a martial cadence drops in and out, and yawning spaces open to be filled with ambient noise. Scattered strains of breakcore emerge between the oppressive four-to-the-floor rhythms, which themselves are constantly tweaked, shifted and evolved. It soon becomes clear that, with such epic spans of time at his disposal, Lingouf has the luxury of allowing each composition to blossom and transform, stimulating growth and deconstruction through several distinct phases, even as the merciless beats drive them ever onward. “Xozpoqorpe” goes from initial breakbeats to verge on powernoise before swerving into atonal chaos and pumping rave synths, while “Filupoy” settles into its own rolling march even as bleeping acid electronics and some yelping lady vie for prominence.
“Area Keloza” derives from the distorted kick drum of hardcore techno, but the comparatively relaxed b.p.m. of “Harpman” and “Bioless Game” takes the genre’s presumed amphetamine pacing and slings it through a vat of hot fudge. Faster “Doyo” (think shrill, highly textured paranoia mixed with extensive breakdowns) and the crashing, white-knuckle title track are more typical. At once gooey and crunchy, the tracks never cease moving and morphing, building and breaking, as if Lingouf is toying with his audience’s curiosity. Significantly, voices are inserted and distorted to great effect throughout the album, a mischievous puppeteering of tortured human souls ensnared in unforgiving, machine-ravaged environments. Dutton Hauhart
BlackAudio https://blackaudio.wordpress.com An unheard of artist for me with bizarre fairytale artwork to match their even more weird and wonderful compositions; curiosity is aroused straight away, and boy does the music fit the bill with the aesthetic. Imagine the drive of power electronics, clean striking techno-like beat structures along-side the club nature of distorted beat, throw in demonic vocals and subtle ambience, glue it together with modern electronic blips and beeps and you are thrown in at the deep end from the word go. Things simply do not lighten up as the completely bludgeoning track two takes hold, which again follows the distorted beat framework, albeit in a cleaner fashion and is all the more powerful for it. Here, clever structures occasionally intertwine with the hypnotic pummeling with a dash of madness just to keep you on your toes. Dance sensibilities not withstanding (yes there is that in here as well), there is more than enough on show here to keep any true to form hardcore Ant-Zen follower happy. Brutal, psychotic, melodic and above all keeps the interest factor up high which is above all the most important factor nowadays. With more than enough generic four to the floor artists swelling an already overcrowded market its good to hear some quality filtering through the fray and Lingouf are certainly there, with knobs on.