DANIEL MENCHE "Vilké" 2xLP

Julian Cope Review on Head Heritage Site: All righty, then, let’s now commence the Reviews Section with a proper overview of VILKÉ, the particularly fine and sprawling new 2LP by American composer, field recordist and hiker Daniel Menche. Inspired by the wolves of his travels in the N. West and named for the Lithuanian for ‘she-wolf’, VILKÉ presents us with four side-long pieces of haunted and eerie atmosphere music whose dilating post-industrial rhythms, and seemingly ever-decaying, ever-degrading, cicadas-driven post-industrial drone-o-drudge inhabits a parallel half-world to that of the wolves whose howls the composer incorporates, nay, everywhere subsumes into his oeuvre. Elsewhere, over a carefully layered choir of wolf howls, the composer has created an orchestration of performed percussion, resounding guitar clatter and abstract piano litter. Wonderfully evocative at all times, kiddies, this is one to get your hands on. Why? Well, Herr Menche’s four splendid sides – released on Washington State’s excellent Sige Records – are each one showcased on handsome clear vinyl, and all accommodated in a luxurious housing-within-a-housing. So, whilst also available on CD, VILKÉ might well best be purchased in this vinyl configuration, each sidelong statement crucial in itself and all four endlessly repeatable.

Tracklist:
01. VILKÉ (Part One)
02. VILKÉ (Part Two)
03. VILKÉ (Part Three)
04. VILKÉ (Part Four)
05. VILKÉ :Bonus Track (Original Demo Version)