Propergol is a name that has over the years become synonymous with intensely powerful and arresting industrial noise and power electronic-esque sculptures of manipulated sounds, pulses, frequencies and warped vocals. The band itself has become almost legendary within the more extreme edges of dark electronic and post-industrial music, and the Frenchman Jérôme Nougaillon , the sole member of Propergol and protagonist of all these sonic kaleidoscopes, has proved himself to be immensely apt at challenging the foundations of these genres and resculpting them in his own image.
This two-track 7”, released in 2003, and following on from the groundbreaking and genre re-defining ‘United States…’ album, demonstrates just why this one-man powerhouse of electronic noise has managed to produce wave after wave of excitement and respect from those who relish the challenges that abrasive noise releases throws up, although to classify this release as simply a power electronics or noise release really doesn’t do it justice.
Structured around Jérôme Nougaillon’s intimate obsessions, both tracks take the listener on an aural journey into a twisted landscape of repetitively looped pulses of droned noise, abrasive scrapes of metallic sounds, and almost abstractly rhythmic pulses of electronics that set a bewildering tone with the confusing array of imagery that is projected by them. Of the two tracks, ‘Tormentor’ is perhaps the more complex and less straightforward of the coupling, with its complexities setting a scene, as the press release that accompanies this 7” puts it, ‘like a nice musical score on schizophrenia’, which pretty much sums up the harsh, sporadically evolving yet repetitive nature of the track.
The B-side ‘I Need You’ follows suit somewhat, with a six-minute exploration of fragmented sounds, overpowering waves of electronic noise, distorted and treated vocal assaults which all accumulates to produce an impenetrable thicket of nightmarish imagery that is constantly projected throughout this track. Sounds collide and noises clash into one another to forge powerful and dominantly unsettling soundscapes, which claw at the senses in a harrowingly unrelenting manner. It’s powerful and imposing, yet still produces an atmosphere that will hold those with a fondness for the harsher elements of electronic noise spellbound.
Even though this release only lasts just over 10 minutes, it shows with a great skill why Propergol have created such waves of excitement and respect with such a limited number of releases.
Housed in a thick black card foldout sleeve with stark red and white artwork and accompanied by a postcard insert, there are rather surprisingly still copies of this 7” knocking around, and if you have an interest in this difficult genre of electronic noise and dark imposing soundscapes, then it’s more than likely that you’ll find everything you require here, so pick up a copy of it whilst you can.
www.hermetique.fr/propergol.htm
www.nuitetbrouillard.com
www.myspace.com/nuitetbrouillard
www.myspace.com/propergolofficial
