Gouédé Oussou - Nothing Matters CD
Gibbon Envy Recordings GER01
From Aural Innovations #38 (Jan 2008)
Out of the industrial fires forged by Cabaret Voltaire, Chrome, This Heat, Psychic
TV and countless others comes Gouédé Oussou with songs of despair,
outrage and pure seething malevolence. The unabashed nihilism of songs like
“Jinx Killer,” “Black Wax” and “Deathblow”
remind one of throbbing Gristle’s chilling, apocalyptic masterpiece Heathen
Earth, though with a decidedly pop edge not unlike Skinny Puppy. Consider the
following lyrics: “In the streets I lead the children, smiling and happy
to the razor man/Carefully he eases off their faces to add to his range of child
masks/In the streets the children dance, for years they’ve been waiting,
and now at last/Now they’re happy, for every child has a wet dripping
red Halloween mask.” Urban horror and cynical depravity always make psychotic
bedfellows in any industrial rock worth the name. Musically, Nothing Matters
features pounding, driving drum machines, sinister distorted vocals and a barrage
of electronics that rain nuclear fury down upon the listener like radioactive
manna from the skies. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, “Human
Cuisine,” “Bring Me the Head of Gouédé Oussou”
and “Eyeball Mazacca” are particularly aggressive, unnerving and
guaranteed to inflict permanent brain damage if listened to on a daily basis.
The five additional remixes by various groups (Cheju, Karhide, Terminal Cheesecake,
Living Tissue and Puff Tube) give Nothing Matters an almost collaborative feel;
all inflict even more sonic damage on the original tracks and consequently on
your already bleeding ears. Suffice to say, Nothing Matters is neither for the
faint of heart nor for the sleight of brain.
Check out the band web site at: http://www.gouedeoussou.com/
Reviewed by Charles Van de Kree