Aquarius Records:: Finally!!! More skull cracking, mind bending, feelings hurting, shin kicking, hair pulling, back stabbing, ass kicking, ribcage rattling, ear piercing, eye gouging, bowel loosening electronic mayhem from our favorite lovable miscreants FFlint Central! This time from the mysterious entity known as The Gideon Leeches. We heard a little bit from the Leeches on the amazing Unholy Trinity compilation reviewed a few lists back and could hardly wait for the full length. And we are not disappointed. In fact I might go so far as to proclaim this one of the best releases on Fflint so far. And that's saying a lot, knowing, as you do, how much we LOVE Berkowitz, Lake and Dahmer, Pendro, Cavendish Sanguine, and the whole lot. But the proof's in the pudding. And the pudding here is a thick, miasmic pool of shimmers and rumbles, buzzing and tinkling, howling and keening. We are suckers for this stuff, at least when it's done right. And believe me, this is done so right. Huge expanses of static sound, with swirling, ever-shifting layers of feedback, buzzing electronic drones, throbbing low end pulses, warbly melodies, creaking machinery and what sounds like swarms of sitars, careening madly above a warm and tranquil blanket of gauzy dreaminess. But with a dark and ominous edge. This has AQ favorite written all over it. Think Sunroof!, Skullflower, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Birchville Cat Motel, Pelt, Peter Wright, and all of those other folks who traffic in deep, dark, organic' free-drone. Fans of the above will definitely LOVE this! And again, our pals at Fflint continue to impress, and we're beginning to think that Fflint just may be one of the only labels we know of with a perfect record (except for tUMULt of course!! - Andee). Can't wait to hear what they come up with next. But in the meantime, BUY THIS!

MilleFeuille.fr: A l'instar des autres artistes du label anglais 100% CD-R Fflint Central, l'univers dans lequel nous propulse The Gideon Leeches (Steve Nuttall) pendant les 57 minutes que durent The Freezing Point of Sound est aussi incompréhensible qu'il est totalement fascinant.

Fidèle a l'esprit maison, The Freezing Point of Sound frôle en permanence le morbide, la démence et, heureusement, un humour salvateur par rapport à ce qui est donné à voir et à entendre.

Si l’on peut citer Aube ou les premiers Brume pour la texture métallique des drones utilisés par Steve Nuttall, The Residence pour ce mélange de folie morbide ou encore Skullflower pour les deux raisons précitées, ce premier opus de The Gideon Leeches reste néanmoins unique.

De part son absence totale de complexes à passer de morceaux relativement atmosphériques comme Hrimgicel ou Burra Folly II, à des séjours psychiatriquement terrifiants tels Crept ou Kild by Several Accidents, The Freezing Point of Sound évite la surcharge dans une seule direction même si, globalement, la promenade à laquelle il nous convie n’est de toute évidence pas des plus saines à bien des niveaux.

Une seule chose est finalement certaine après plusieurs écoutes de cet album: il rendra invariablement dépendant ceux qui seront d'emblée sensibles à ces invocations expressément nocturnes (S. Nuttall remerciant Barry Williams et Tim Jones, les deux fondateurs de Fflint Central, sans qui The Freezing Point of Sound n’aurait jamais vu les ténèbres de la nuit !) et qui souhaiteront habiller leurs angoisses des plus beaux habits. Bref, de la folie haute gamme. [Emmanuel B.]

Indieville: The Gideon Leeches create evil electronic music. Solely using samples, ambient atmospherics, and glitchy noises, they assemble experimental soundscapes that are often Satanic in nature.
The main knock on this style of ambient, experimental music is that it takes a large attention span to appreciate it. This is definitely the case with The Freezing Point of Sound; since it is largely an atmospheric album, it is geared mostly towards patient listeners - fans of early AFX material, as well as the likes of Eno, Laswell, and Niblock, may find this to be a very interesting release. Moments of melodic accessibility are far from abundant here (the warbling, spaced-out "Burra Folly II" is about as "catchy" as you'll get), but this just forces the audience to find value in the disc's other elements. A subtle background shift; an echoing, metallic clank; a wave of sonic feedback; using simple effects such as these, The Freezing Point of Sound teaches the listener to pay attention to even the most subliminal details of the sound - and this can be a profoundly wonderful exercise in musical appreciation.

I won't preach any longer. Instead, I'll leave you to discover The Gideon Leeches' album on your own - if you are so inclined. Don't be surprised if The Freezing Point of Sound turns you off altogether; however, if you're just the right type of music fan, it could become your new favourite album.

87%

Matt Shimmer

Modern Dance: 'Twas in the year nine point seven three nine. Prince Rupert the fifth had just abdicated, and for the first time in recorded history, every planet in the known universe aligned. In celebration, throughout the seven parsec quadrant, The Gideon Leeches performed The Freezing Point Of Sound. This twelve track album is the soundtrack to the universe, and unlike a lot of Fflintcentral albums, this one has lots of light, hope and doesn't concentrate too much on shadows and undercurrents. Steve Nuttall is the man behind these dramatic soundscapes and is the latest addition to the Fflint stable. What is strange is the fact that this album is 'so' Fflint, if you know what I mean. There is no denying that this label has developed and nurtured a sound and mood that's so very distinctive and personal. Even though tracks like Hrimgicel and Rising Of The Lights are light and airey, there's as many, if not more, that do scare you shitless! Many of the titles reflect exactly the mood and colours such as Scowring & Flux, Headmouldshot and Murthered. I'm sure that Fflint is run and produced by self replicating androids who are sending messages to all electrical appliances to unite and destroy humans, so be careful where you play this kinda stuff. Sure, there's loads of this 'new' stuff out there, utilising samples, electronics and synths, but there aren't too many who get it right every time. (Dw)

Aquarius Records::The return of Fflint!! The first release in almost a year from our hands down, favorite fucked outsider electronic label. Avid readers of the AQ list need only see the names Berkowitz Lake And Dahmer, Cavendish Sanguine, Pendro, Cousin Silas and of course the Gideon Leeches, to know what sort of mind bending, ear shredding electronic fuckery these freaks have in store for us.
The Gideon Leeches, aka Steve Nuttall, was the first group on Fflint, not in some way made up of one (or both) of the two shadowy souls behind the Fflint curtain. But hearing this (and the previous disc, The Freezing Point) one would be forgiven for assuming that it was actually a like minded trio responsible for all of these sounds. Some sort of freakish three headed calf, plopped down behind some busted up turntables, an old sampler and a mixing desk, kept alive with a steady diet of crisps and beer. The results are suitably damaged and off kilter. And glorious!!!
So here we have Blessed Is The Noise, the work of one of those three heads, and what a piece of work it is too. Like most Fflint discs, it's a very fine balance between droning beauty and complete chaos, and as we might expect (and hope), the Leeches have no problem diving headfirst into either. Or both. It's electronic music, but it's sure as hell not 'danceable', it's dark and droney, but not really soothing and tranquil. But then again, it sort of is. Both. Soothing AND tranquil. And danceable. OK, not really danceable.
Vocals are chopped and sliced and diced and reassembled into some sort of damaged robotic Portishead thing, and set adrift amidst a soft shimmery backdrop, before the backdrop revolts and becomes dense and corrosive, moaning like bowed sheets of metal, but remaining still somehow droney and dreamy. Thick swathes of sparkling sunbaked sound are wrapped around a relentlessly catchy nursery rhyme melody, like an ice cream truck driving directly into the center of the sun. A vast expanse of vibrating rods, all shimmering and quivering and letting off soft metallic whirs, is submerged beneath 6 inches of muddy water, while a row of parked cars honks along, the whole thing recorded on a wax cylinder and played back through a hearing aid. Elsewhere, an orchestra of keening high end tones is wrapped around a throbbing rumbling whir, the sound of a crying child is subsumed by a million skipping cds, their skipping creating a warm womb like whir, while also unleashing inadvertent subtly rhythmic pulses. Gorgeous blurry drifts of muted melody are stretched into gauzy sheets and draped over ghostly vocals. A Sunroof! like din is channelled through the spirit of a player piano, resulting in a strange old timey abstract free noise Ur-drone, and so much more...
Blessed Is The Noise is nearly indescribable, or more precisely seems to be more easily described in terms of rods and player pianos and honking horns and ice cream trucks, than tone and timbre, but that's precisely what makes it so magical. Like all of the Fflint stuff, it's gorgeous and confusional, lovely, yet cracked, far out, but completely catchy at the same time. And also, as with all of the Fflint stuff, so wholeheartedly recommended!

MilleFeuille.fr: La fin de la normalité est enfin arrivée : Steve Nuttall, aka The Gideon Leeches, est de retour avec le bien nommé Blessed is the Noise, nouvelle pièce maîtresse à ajouter au catalogue du toujours indispensable label dérangeur de paix, Fflint Central Recordings.

Trois ans après les plages nocturnes et psychiatriques de The Freezing Point of Sound, Steve Nuttall n’a pas perdu un seul iota de sa fantastique et terrifiante capacité à séduire pour mieux effrayer. La voix prédicatrice du premier titre l’annonce aussi solennellement que menaçante : « It’s time again ! ». Alors, allons-y gaiement, avec cette même joie mêlée de frissons à l’idée d’entrer dans un endroit où l’on sait par expérience que la surprise rôde à chaque détour.

Ouvrant l’album, le titre (et nom de l’opus en question) Blessed the Noise est une véritable avalanche de sons surgissant puis replongeant comme un monstre tentaculaire au milieu d’une mer déchaînée. En ce sens, il préfigure ce que nous réserve la suite : des lames de sons inconnus fondant l’une dans l’autre, des textes récités par des orateurs aussi incompréhensibles qu’indescriptibles, des ritournelles psychotropiques et, omniprésente, tant dans l’imagerie, les ambiances sonores que dans le choix des titres : cette sorte de malveillance planante qui donne à l’ensemble sa cohésion et son énergie. Bref, cet univers « Gideoleechiens » unique par lequel il est à nouveau bon de se laisser ensevelir.

De fait, il est difficile d’imaginer que des titres comme Setting the Hare’s Head Against the Goose Giblets, Grow me a Gown with Golden Dawn, Mort O’Mettle ou On the Fidgets soient nés à la lumière d’une émouvante et tendre révélation amoureuse, ou de l’émotion de Steve Nuttall face à un paysage champêtre où une biche et son faon gambadaient insouciamment, mais plutôt en feuilletant le Nécronomicon avant de visionner Titicut Folies.

Aussi séduisant et fatale que le chant des sirènes, Blessed is the Noise est tout aussi indispensable que son prédécesseur. Longue vie au Gideon Leeches ! [Emmanuel B.]