Published by Davide Pappalardo on March 5, 2018
Riotmiloo is the solo project of Emilie Verbieze (Gross Miss Kondukt, Kaminari, No Himei, The Venom Seeds) dedicated to experimental electronic music with industrial undertones and minimal, dark structures. Her first effort under this monicker is a collaborative album called La Pierre Soudée, documenting in eleven tracks women’s suffering in the world through stories taken from people she met in her life. The title of the album itself is borrowed from french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his book Masculine Domination in which he describes how language defines and perpetrates symbolic violence against women. So, more than just a collection of songs, we have here a sort of concept album where the soundscapes operate as soundtracks for a developing narrative made of different episodes united by the main theme.
It is not by chance that an album like this one, characterized by an experimental approach, is published by the famous German label Ant-Zen, very well know as a household for different kinds of engaging electronic music. Every track see a collaboration with a different musician in the field of electro-industrial, rhythmic noise, and even trip-hop: we have names like Cedrik Fermont/C-Drick (Axiome, Ammo, Moonsanto, and many others), Dirk Ivens of Dive, Sonar and The Klinik fame, French Audiotrauma representative Chrysalide (Amnesy, Arnaud Coeffic, Sylvain Coeffic), Till Brüggemann of Gerechtigkeits and Krank, Philipp Münch (Synapscape, The Rorschach Garden, Ars Moriendi) and Paul Lavigne (Eva|3).
The title track starts the work with cosmic dark ambient patterns courtesy of Eva|3, soon developing a dramatic crescendo upon which Emilie displays her slow vocals in French, while A fly as a pet sees the intervention of Dirk Ivens and his minimal, abrasive approach made of electronic bleeps and noisy synth-lines. Once again Emilie returns with her vocals, this time with more of an aggressive edge, telling us her brooding story surrounded by an aptly morbid atmosphere.
Monster is track in which Philipp Münch creates a noise-laden rhythmic pattern upon which Emilie lays eerie vocals, before things get uglier thanks to shouted chants and spiraling synth sounds. Child bride is a collaboration with Scalper (Nadeem Shafi) characterized by trip hop movements and Illbient soundscapes, an almost lysergic episode with a psychedelic, hypnotizing quality. I was once is an evocative track where Chysalide deliver their syncopated brand of electro-industrial while Emilie moves between soothing lullabies and desperate attacks.
Freedom from fear surprises us with ambient undertones (thanks to Babylone Chaos a.k.a Julien Cornu-Kuochand) and majestic, evocative structures, upon which Emilie delivers one of her finest performance on the album, perfectly helped by the highly emotive crescendo, and the ambient songwriting persist, but with a darker style, in the next track Miss landmine, a collaboration with Vadi Starh.
A peculiar album requiring an attentive listening, linked to its main theme thanks to an all encompassing artistic vision. Many kinds of alternative electronic music are used in order to characterize the different episodes, giving us the idea of different chapters in an ongoing narrative made of words and sounds. Once again Ant-Zen confirms itself has a label with a wide vision, giving us a work which goes beyond style definitions and limits. A recommended listening experience.
Label: Ant-Zen
Rating: 7,5