Nos Phillipé: Shh... Camille
Confront Collectors Series

Shh.. Camille is a single-track, twenty-three-minute drone exploration by Nos Phillipé, an experimental East London outfit comprised of Jonathan Webb and Robert Hopps combine processed field recordings with electroacoustic improvisations generated by guitar, turntables, electronics, and found sounds—the group name, incidentally, inspired by an acquaintance whose visage bears similarities to both actor Ryan Phillippe and Nosferatu (presumably the Max Schreck or Klaus Kinski characterization). Shh.. Camille spends its first eight minutes clumping through a subterranean chamber of hazy atmosphere and cavernous rumbling before breaking through to an industrial zone where seething tones violently pierce the air. The mood turns nightmarish, so much so that one imagines the unwitting explorers moving beyond the factory floor to a burning-hot torture chamber where eviscerated victims cling to life and wail in vain hope of rescue. To their credit, Webb and Hopps choose not to have the piece detonate in an immolating fireball but instead ease it down gently in a well-handled decompression.

April 2008