.Angle.Rec.
Domesticated daydreaming is not enough for Skinwell, the duo of Martin Dumais (multislab processing, analog melodic extractions) and Christian Corvellec (initial templates and layers, digital processing). The colorful credits notwithstanding, the planning of Tunnels is merely essential: short segments of sonic uneasiness and acidic transiency get meshed, extensively stretched and devitalized to produce soundscapes whose stagnant temperament reveals instead lots of inside movements. The practically unrecognizable substances utilized to reach the desired levels of angst sound compact, markedly unkind, in a way illuminating on reality: these tracks depict a human race on its last legs, the worst aspects underlined by an ceaseless gloominess. We find no silly optimism, no openings to a better future, no blue skies: a deadpan elaboration of sufferance recited by ill-fated souls inhabiting lands where glitter is prohibited.
Despite the pronounced pessimism, the conscious listener is going to accept these bulletins of distress without a problem, and the repetition of this experience is recommended to help disemboweling the corpse of your inhibition. Call it “advanced post-industrialism of the third kind” - or upsetting ambient, should you choose a low-level playback. Not suitable to seekers of fatuous peacefulness.
