WuW – Rien Ne Nous Sera Epargne



Kinda like Rick Springfield, I get excited by heavy French music. I've listened to a fair amount of it, and I cannot put my finger on what exactly what it is that French musicians do, but I enjoy a lot of it. This release came out of nowhere but it sure has the goods to make for some very interesting listening. I've listened to so much average music that I love it when an album comes along that really changes things up.

I'm not sure I would call this metal, and I'm not sure I know to what it compares. The press release says it “indulges in minimalistic contemporary experimentalism whilst being firmly rooted in a darker undercurrent of heavy progressive and psychedelic krautrock”. I would probably say its post-metal and leave it at that.

WuW is two brothers who hail from Paris. They bring a variety of percussion instruments, keyboards, drum, guitars and bass, and they pretty much do whatever they want. I find this music very intriguing both in the way it is performed and the way the songs build up. Several songs on this release start with a simple rhythm or a simple bass line, a soft strum pattern on the guitar, and layer upon layer of other instrumentation builds the song until something that started out so basic has suddenly become a heaving sonic leviathan that is simply crushingly heavy. Another thing that took me a while to realize is that this is an instrumental album. I'm not a big fan of instrumental albums, but this one is so good that I was listening to track 4 out of 6 before it even hit me that there are no vocals on this album. The songs are that engaging and interesting, there is so much going on with the different layers and sounds that vocals are not necessary. When you check this out, make sure to listen with the trusty headphones. It is so much better that way. And not some wimpy earbuds, get those studio quality over the ear monsters that really recreate what these guys put down.

The title of the album translates to “Nothing Will Be Spared”, which also makes you think. Like, nothing will be left out, we're putting everything we have into this release. Or, the destruction will be absolute, nothing will be saved, it will all be gone. That ambiguity is good, it makes you wonder what they really meant. All of the song titles are in French as well. They include “We Were Born To Be People”, “To Live In The Splendor of the Crepuscules”, and “For What Will Remain”. Somewhat vague, somewhat head scratching, but it makes you think and take part in the music and the complete presentation of the album. I listen to an instrumental song and wonder why it was given that particular title. I like to partipate, and WuW have given us these wonderful tracks that allow us to do just that.

You can listen to the same old genres and formats and verse, chorus, verse structures and yeah, you can derive a certain pleasure in the same. Sometimes, though, its good to really stretch out and involve yourself with something far from the ordinary. That's why we need bands like this who give us music like this.

-ODIN




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