(Released through cuchabatarecords.bandcamp.com - Physical copies TBA)

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This is a good sign that you are in your third decade as a noise purveyor when you go through your archives and you find something you absolutely don’t remember… While getting through tons of 4 tracks tape recordings from that era for another project, I found that tape named “Wapstan – Wind Of Change”... Jamming it, I realized that, among these windy sounds, it was indeed something like a noise take on Wind Of Change… Weird…

Strange because I totally forgot that such thing exists... That means I don't know when and how it was recorded... Possibly between 2009 and 2013... It may have been recorded with reel to reel and microcassette players, not sure… The melody sounds like it is some whistling, maybe slowed down and played on a looped magnetic tape with a reel to reel… The rest sounds like field recordings of snowstorms. I used to do a lot of these back then, hence why most of my microcassette players are all broken (and one reason why I moved from playing with tapes)… These small devices are possibly not made to be thrown for hours in a cold Québec winter day… So, I’m not sure if this was the main process of this recording but the result is what matters…

I may know why this was shelved, but I guess these reasons why are kinda why I like this one now that it aged in my 4 track tapes drawer. It is raw, monotone, hostile, it is filled with imperfections, with this repetitive take on the intro line of this classic jam all along. It is TRVE KVLT noise, the kind of old stuff that interested me into the old school harsh noise scene in the 90s. You know, sounds when noise was something like a small network of weirdos recording weird shit. I may idealize this period, but, you know… That is one thing I like from this recording, the naïve direct “mange de la marde, je m’en crisse si t’aimes pas ça” raw sound… I may have rejected it because it was not enough this or that or whatever, you know, when you are young and you play stuff in order to be accepted or something… I am too old to do noise to please people, too old to care what people think…

At first, I thought about recording more noise around or cut it in half or integrating it in a broader project for some labels that asked me for new Wapstan sounds lately… But… Nah, fuck it, take the whole thing how it was made like a decade ago. You’ll get the big raw block… It was like 3-4 life away, I was a different person back then, it wouldn’t be right to butcher something I did while I was in a different period of my life… And in some ways, it is great because it is a very raw document of my noise approach back then. Moreover, as I mentioned, I kinda moved away from this tape approach for multiple reasons and it is great to have a document like of this period at its most direct way...

The weirdest part of playing it the first time was to realise that it was actually some sort of a take on Wind Of Change…. If you know me, you are possibly not surprised... I am a big rock dude, people think it is ironic at first but it never is… It is one of my all time fave song, you know, killer radio track from my childhood and personal karaoke hit! After a couple of jams, I decided that the result was too weird to be shelved for another decade… Great also that my bro DDD agreed to release it on Cuchabata since I release most of my stuff there nowadays as I grew tired of doing my own label… So, here it is, my (possibly) early 2010s hypothermic drone take of the greatest power ballad ever…

Let your balalaika sing

What my guitar wants to say

-Martin Sasseville, Montréal, February 2021