From Montreal, Canada comes THISQUIETARMY (all caps or no caps but all letters run together), the solo project of Eric Quach, who has been doing this sort of thing since 2005 (with literally dozens of releases under his belt), but he has help on this release. This is the first time I've heard THISQUIETARMY. 'Langue Hybride' was written and arranged in less than 4 weeks during thisquietarmy’s music residency at Centre d’Expérimentation Musical (CEM) in the region of Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean, Québec. Not unlike his previous full-band efforts ('The Body and The Earth' or 'Machine Consciousness'), thisquietarmy expands his signature brand of guitar-based noise/ambient music even further — this time, assisted by professional session musicians of CEM playing drums, percussion (Émile Boucher-Cloutier), bass (Stéphane Beaulieu), synth, guitar (Bruno Ouellet), violin (Jessy Dubé), and cello s(Iabelle Harve). This is a live album performed at Centre d’Expérimentation Musical (CEM) in August 2023 — Saguenay, QC, consisting of 5 tracks clocking in at about 57 minutes. Beginning with "Les rayons cosmiques," heavy, sludgy, distorted guitar amidst the crash of cymbals heralds a gloomy atmosphere. Juxtaposed with viola and cello that comes in after, it sounds like an outtake from an early-to- mid-70s King Crimson jam session. Then an electronic-based rhythm emerges and TQA moves into full jam mode, which actually sounds pretty cool, with a big distorto build-up at the end. If that track wasn't heavy and sludgy enough for you, "Respirer l'instabilité" remedies that with a slow jam wall of distortion lasting nearly 4 1/2 minute before any reprieve. After that. it's a band jam including funky wah-wah guitar that gets pretty wild for a while. Of course, it all has to end in a wall distortion. The ominous "Les radicaux libres" has this strangely woozy quality about it, almost inspiring seasickness on land. The little bit of structure there is is dwarfed by the improvisation by all musicians involved, and halfway through, a rhythmic theme emerges with palpable tension, a kind of march toward total destruction that peters out before it devolves into total chaos.

"Organismes en aérobiose" begins with guitar arpeggios as a theme that is built upon by the other musicians, then moves into something more thematically formidable. If the Velvet Underground were into free jazz, it might sound something like this, but really, this is much more in King Crimson's domain. Finally, we get to "Solastalgie impalpable," a sweetly melancholic syncopated track that turns harsh with slabs of noisy guitar, coalescing into a melange of electronic drones where it stays for a good long while, until the inevitable breakdown of the finale. It's pretty obvious 'Langue Hybride' is a live album meant to feed on the energy of the audience, as all the hallmarks are there. I do believe there's a big (well, relatively, for leftfield noise drone like this) market for this kind of album, and the energy expended is astounding on everybody's part. I doubt it would have come off half as successful as it is without the participation of the talented supporting players, and 'Langue Hybrid' should raise a few eyebrows and pierce a few eardrums in the process. Both the LP and the CD are limited edition, but if you want' the vinyl, you need to act fast, as it seems there are very few copies remaining.