Brume – Apocalypse At 6.AM. [Cass] (1992, Tapes For Masses)

 

The cassette 'Apocalypse At 6 A.M.' belongs to the remarkably prolific early-1990s period of Brume, the long-running project of French composer and sound artist Christian Renou. It was issued in 1992 by the Portuguese label Tapes For Masses, catalogued as TFM 003, and takes its place among a long sequence of Brume cassettes that circulated through the international cassette-culture and industrial underground. 

 
Renou had already been working with sound manipulation for more than a decade when 'Apocalypse At 6 A.M.' appeared. His first experiments went back to the late 1970s, when he was involved with a large jazz-rock group called Uria, initially providing unusual effects and noises rather than functioning as a conventional musician. He began working independently around 1981, experimenting with synthesizers, tape loops, cassette players and crude recording equipment. He eventually developed a very personal approach based on cutting, looping, layering and physically manipulating recorded sound. 

 
The name Brume emerged in 1985 with the self-released cassette 'Frikture', followed by 'Le Jour Du Cochon' and a steady flow of releases through the international mail-art and cassette networks. Renou became extremely prolific, issuing dozens of cassettes through small labels in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the United States and elsewhere. By the time of 'Apocalypse At 6 A.M.' he had already accumulated releases on labels such as Organic Tapes, Old Europa Cafe, Tonspur, Audiofile, Corrosive Tapes and SPH. 

 
Brume's music is difficult to reduce to a single genre, although musique concrète, industrial noise, electroacoustic experimentation and sound collage are useful starting points. Renou treated recordings almost as raw physical material, chopping them into fragments, extending them, combining unrelated noises and building dense layers from percussion, electronics, mechanical sounds and manipulated environmental recordings. Descriptions of his work from the period frequently emphasize rapid montage and collage, with the abrasive side of industrial music sitting alongside more atmospheric and textural passages. 

 
'Apocalypse At 6 A.M.' sits within an especially busy year for Renou. The 1992 discography includes several other Brume releases, among them 'I'm... I Come... I Was...' on Tonspur, the collaborative 'Lisza-Lisza' with Bovoso, 'Soulscape' with De Fabriek, and 'Sperm + Egg' with Sudden Infant. There was also 'Battery Hens Sabotage', while the following year brought releases such as 'Xeros' and further collaborations. 

 
The cassette also fits neatly into the catalogue of Tapes For Masses, a Portuguese underground label that operated in the early 1990s and concentrated on the sort of international experimental, industrial and noise material that was circulating through cassette networks at the time. The label's releases were generally small-scale affairs: another 1992 title, Telepherique's 'Music In Pictures', appeared on the same label, while De Fabriek's 'Trabbi Music' was catalogued as TFM 001 and reportedly limited to only 50 copies. The numbering gives 'Apocalypse At 6 A.M.' a particularly nice place in that tiny catalogue: De Fabriek's 'Trabbi Music' was TFM 001, a Kapotte Muziek release appeared as TFM 002, and Brume's cassette followed as TFM 003. S·Core's 'Deformation' subsequently appeared as TFM 004 in 1993.

 

These releases show how Tapes For Masses connected Portuguese cassette production with artists from the wider European industrial and experimental network. The cassette format was central to this whole scene rather than merely a cheap alternative to vinyl. Renou himself regarded cassette exchange as an important part of his development, allowing him to communicate with musicians, labels and listeners internationally while keeping production extremely flexible. He recorded some Brume material in remarkably short sessions, sometimes over a single weekend, and the sheer number of releases reflects that very DIY working method. 

 
Renou continued using the Brume name through the 1990s, with releases on labels including Staalplaat, Old Europa Cafe, Ant-Zen, Bandaged Hand Productions, Realization, Nuit et Brouillard and Intransitive. Around the turn of the millennium he began releasing more material under his own name; 'Zona Ventille' appeared in 2001, followed by further electroacoustic and musique concrète projects. Brume then went into a period of inactivity before Renou revived the project in 2008, after noticing that the musical approach he had developed under his own name was gradually returning towards the characteristic Brume aesthetic. 

 

 

Label: Tapes For Masses – TFM 003 

Format: Cassette, Limited Edition, C60 

Country: Portugal 

Released: Jun 1992 

Style: Abstract, Tribal, Experimental, Tape Music, Sound Collage 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Untitled 5:33 

A2 Untitled 3:11 

A3 Untitled 1:25 

A4 Untitled 4:12 

A5 Untitled 1:30 

A6 Untitled 0:49 

A7 Untitled 3:49 

A8 Untitled 8:14 

B1 Untitled 3:50 

B2 Untitled 5:26 

B3 Untitled 6:43 

B4 Untitled 13:00 

 

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