Since the release of its second album in 2018, Negative Etiquette, Noire Antidote seems to be searching for itself: side-projects, remixes and singles follow one another. It's easy to see in this a desire to try new things and avoid stagnation. With aversion cluster, the artist counts on several guests to offer us a new variation of his sinister electronic music.
True to a trend we'd already sensed in its latest work (notably last year's cryptomnesia EP), Noire Antidote's title track affirms its more rhythmic approach. While the lugubrious melodies that leave a lasting impression on our eardrums still provide a dose of mystery, they are no longer as essential. Noire Antidote is more aggressive, more oppressive, more suffocating... and still more industrial (just listen to those metallic percussions on CL2ANCE).
While we still appreciate the sense of anguish and darkness imposed by overly saturated bass and the spectres that lament in the more melancholy layers, our curiosity inevitably draws us to the collaborations, with the emotional memory of the very good track produced with Ecstasphere a few years earlier in mind. Moaan Exis, the savages of intense, feverish industrial techno made in France, obviously bring their impact and tribal touch, but psychoterratic doesn't abandon ghostly ambiences, reminding us that Mathieu Caudron is as skillful with atmospheric experiments as he is with frenetic assaults. Hearing Noire Antidote break out of its tortured comfort zones is pleasant, even if cult opaque with Hxyashi remains in the haunted terrain of witch-house with its high-pitched synths. Between dysphonia with Mathilde Nobel and her hallucinatory tunes, or Moris Blak's contribution on true misanthropic outlines, which opts for a crescendo towards energetic cyberpunk techno... or even CL2ANCE, without any guest but just as disconcerting with its dominance of panicked rhythm and percussion, Noire Antidote blurs our reference points.
While we may still regret that the macabre poetry and the mystic touch of his earlier work is less present, we can only rejoice that the artist continues to evolve. His music is more violent, but all the ingredients of past nightmares are still there: ominous dissonances, crushing layers and asphyxiating, racing rhythms. Noire Antidote's music lends itself particularly well to collaborations: it only takes a few notes to recognize the artist's universe and give a track a very special, gloomy tone. In the future, we hope to see him continue to contaminate and possess other universes with his talent for creepy music.
