Sadanne by Slumberhouse (2014)

A tough one to review. I wore this for one day and made a complete twist about this. From the very first sniff you clearly get some of the “signature” features of Slumberhouse’s scents, mostly the base Lobb seems to use for many fragrances: that sort of dark, medicinal boozy-ambery thickness, here with something animalic... but twisted in a complete different way than usual, pretty upsetting at first – and frankly hard to wear for the first minutes. Basically, Sadanne opens as a rotting lollipop: there’s all this fruity, jammy juiciness halfway raspberry bubblegums and cough syrups for children, juxtaposed to – or drowned in, I’d say – the “industrial Baroque” which characterizes Lobb’s world, the oily, deadly base rot which you get in most of his scents. The juxtaposition is daring and insolent, and quite messy at first: I admit I get a charming feel of creepiness, a sort of psychedelic, playfyl horrific decadence, like watching a Z-series splatter movie directed by John Waters. But at first I can’t really consider this something one would ever want to wear. There’s just... too much of everything – too sweet-juicish on one side, too rotting-dark on the other. Too powerful and cacophonic, which means almost repulsive. Nonetheless... with a little bit of patience, as hours pass Sadanne becomes more and more consistent, wearable, “harmonic” and compelling, reaching a really interesting substance.

It still remains a challenging clash between jamminess and gloominess, but all the notes and nuances kind of “melt” tuning on the same tone, reaching some sort of odd balance, like a chorus of freaks finally finding some harmony – a warm, medicinal, colourful shade of madness, completely nondescript, with a range of nuances from carnal to caramel. To me, a really innovative experiment which tries to rewrite the “fruity-jammy gourmand” in a filthy, gloomy light, a dirty “psychocandy” which I can’t not like – even only for the concept. And as I said, after a couple of hours it becomes even quite “easier”to wear, and frankly also rather pleasant and fun, more civilized than the opening phase – basically a sort of boozy-ambery civet topped with a bittersweet, sugary-fruity “dark” syrupy accord (think of Lutens for children). And a subtle powdery-musky undertone. And something smelling like blood. I would talk of... don’t know, “splatter pop Baroque”? Sadanne feels like an olfactive depiction of those tacky teen horror movies of the 1980s’ - Troma and friends. Just even more crazy – darker on one side, more childish on the other. Maybe hard to appreciate in its entirety, but really promising, intriguing, genuinely creative and different from the rest. Completely out of fashion and clichés. As Lobb often reformulates and fixes his scents, I am sure that a couple of fixes may make Sadanne a milestone for contemporary niche.

8,5/10

Ore Parfum Extrait by Slumberhouse

Year: 2009
Nose: Josh Lobb

I'm completely sold to Slumberhouse. This is just the freshest stuff around, at least in the indie niche segment. The opening is again, as all of Lobb's scents, sharp and powerful, vivid and perfectly crafted like a sculpture in raw wood: dusty, earthy, sweet cocoa beans, so earthy and raw that they smell like patchouli, on cistus and whiskey notes, with a totally peculiar resinous, mossy, dry amber base. Dark woods. The most dense, dark, thick, luscious, ambiguous and foggy gourmand I have ever smelled, that vibrant cocoa prominent note is just brilliant, so tasty and silky, and dusty like black concrete. Half-velvety, half-milky neon-green balsamic vein with echoes of vanillin and anise pulsating below – Slumberhouse's signature accord. Unique, brilliant, sophisticated in its own peculiar way, with an incredible balance of notes, a lot of facets with a compact, consistent overall vibe. A blend of raw, organic naturals with aromachemicals – that addicting, intriguing "retro-futuristic" vein under almost all the scents of this – allow me this idiotic word – "genius" indie house. An overwhelming talent with a perfect craft and stunning materials. The evolution is equally great, it loses a bit of dustiness, the balsamic breeze gets a bit more space, and the dry, yet rubbery dark tar-woods emerge more clearly. Quite a linear evolution, though – that may be the only con. For me, hats off.

9/10

Slumberhouse's Best - Round 1

I'm testing the whole Slumberhouse line, my plan was to pick 3-4 of the best ones, but since actually most of them are beyond great, I'll "split" my selection in a couple of round-ups. Here's the first one.

***

Vikt

Straight on my top chart of Slumberhouse, which is actually an ex-aequo of most of their scents. Ultra-modern elegance at its best. The first smell is something completely new, a narcotic, velvety feel, sensual and mellow but in a totally unique way, nondescript and physically irresistible, extremely persuasive and pleasant, halfway between sticky and dusty. I detect the over-dark, venomous oily accord of styrax and benzoin (and trisamber?) of other Slumberhouse scents, but here is played in a suspended, aerial, azure-green balsamic nowhere. And there lies that "smell" I find so luring and irresistible, it's like and anisic, medicinal, poisonous talcum. Incense notes emerge too. Usual terrific balance of notes and quality of materials. On the base you feel this dirty, sticky terpenic river of dark woods with a medicinal vibe, but the main unique feature of the scent is that translucent anisic smoke with silky tobacco notes, which just surrounds everything. At some point, from somewhere, a fruit note drips into the base darkness, and it brings to life a subtle rancid note. Crazy alchemic balance. The "visual experience" here is consistent with Josh Lobb's obsessions, it's like wandering in a decaying, post-modern, desert suburb, and just stopping by a crevice on a wall and inspire the narcotic azure smoke it exhales. Several notes recur, and compared to other scents from this line, this is one of the most complex for me, as it show many nuances and shades. It's still quite linear, but the linearity is vast and dimensional enough not to get bored of it. After a couple of hours it gets warmer and sweeter, the balsamic-medicinal accord emerges better as well as the ambroxan base, still with a black sticky vein and a dry, gloomy, industrial rubbery feel of dead woods (perhaps a bit too much rubbery after a while). Echoes and ruins of a dissolved contemporaneity.

8,5-9/10

***

Baque

Perhaps my favourite so far. Again, the Slumberhouse mantra: sharp, powerful, vibrant, a "stereo" feel. A bold cocoa note, dustier and darker than ever, on a boozy tobacco-ambroxan base and a rough, earthy, biting patchouli feel, heavy and gloomy. There's no patchouli but cocoa and tobacco give me that feeling. Think of Lutens' Borneo 1834 on steroids. Like being thrown in a humid, black, empty, deep reservoir, with green, bitter, poisonous branches growing on the walls. You also feel quite clearly the cedar and the mossy notes, with this sour, dense and tiny heart of artemisia. And then, of course, the tobacco, so rooty, powerful and overwhelming you don't even notice it's there – because it's surrounding you. Shady, humid and pungent, the Holy Grail of tobacco lovers. Like waking up in a humidor. As minutes pass it progressively dries down still remaining super dark and dusty, with this dense poisonous heart, and a balsamic breeze which is the consistent trademark of many Lobb's scents. The drydown is slightly sweeter and stickier, but the texture is the same, and it goes on, and on, for hours, tasty and clear like hours before (again, Slumberhouse's linearity: that may turn into a "con"). Besides the great, balanced, bright composition, the materials are just amazing, powerful and vibrant. Sadly for the moment it's discontinued but it's a mandatory try!

9/10

***

Mare

Crazy, gorgeous opening, really powerful and amplified, an edible, mentholated green-balsamic accord of crunchy leaves on a dark, oily, milky base, greener than green, humid and wet, spacious and tridimensional, with bold herbaceous notes and a general invigorating, energetic vibe, like those sugarfree mint candies you eat when you've a sore throat. Never smelled anything like this before – and I am surely not "an easy one" when it comes to enthusiasm, especially for avant-garde niche products. This instead just completely got me. The heart of the scent is really dense, thick, materic, almost oily and sticky, pungent but at the same time, luminous and bright – not in a predictable "sunlight" meaning, rather a neon, plastic light. Lot of synthetic aromachemicals, but used in a really balanced, bright and creative way, to explore new ways of composition and give the scent a palpable futuristic vibe. All smells so "new" (to me, at least) that makes this scent quite hard to describe for me, but it's simply superb, the only "normal" reference I can recall is that balsamic accord, which from times to times smells also like absinth, with its darker, liquid and stickier counterpart. But there is a lot more, there's this strange, captivating feel which makes me think of two cultural references: the opalescent, suspended, gloomy photography of Sokurov's movies, and the world of Ballard's novels - specifically his "The drowned World" novel, which is set in this post-apocalyptic green, super humid world. This is quite the smell one can imagine that world may exhude – a futuristic, at the same time organic and archaic nature. Deadidol perfectly summed that up on Basenotes: "it’s the scent that vegetation will produce when humans are no longer around to interfere". Totally brilliant. Plus, the composition is just perfect, powerful yet restrained where it should be, it's just great. Plenty of skills and talent here, and a stunning quality of materials. The only tiny "con" is the drydown, which smells a bit like a chewing-gum, but I can really forgive that.

8,5/10

***

Here is a great and interesting interview with Josh Lobb.