Continuing with the increasing amount of new material that I’ve been listening to lately in order to squeeze in as much as possible before years end leads me to this new record by Gouédé Oussou called Nothing Matters. The album vaults itself into the territory of late 80’s/early 90’s noise-punk and industrial, to which has consistently found itself falling further into obscurity so it’s both interesting and very refreshing to hear an album like Nothing Matters these days. The late part of the 80’s and early 90’s saw great bands like Godflesh, Terminal Cheesecake, Head of David, Cop Shoot Cop, and a ton of others all sort of emerge with a noisier and abrasive take on industrial music, giving it a bit of a metal flair whilst still reveling in the trashy cold sensibilities that made it so wonderful in the first place. Gouédé Oussou has created a record in Nothing Matters that draws a lot of influence from this time period and kudos to them for doing so. Full on with schizophrenic beats and loads of samples to boot; the disc rips through twenty tracks (five of which are remixes) that drench themselves in a hollow distant slow burn of distortion while jumping back and forth between countless eerie vocal tracks and samples that blend in very nicely with the overall vibe of the disc. In fact, one of the many highlights of the disc is a cover of John Carpenter’s theme for Assault on Precinct 13, which is a perfect choice as Carpenter’s compositions for his movies were fairly chilling in a heartless/lifeless sort of way as it was.Labels: electronic, industrial, noise-rock
