The title of this album couldnt possibly be more descriptive: using only audio recordings of Cosey Fanni Tutti’s voice, COH (a.k.a. Ivan Pavlov) uses her as an instrument. Small fragments of voice become melodious elements, phonemes become drums, and the smallest syllables are shaped into synthesizers. The result is an electronic work that simultaneously manages to be beautifully organic and completely alien.
Some of the tracks here clearly retain the color of the original source material: "Sin-King" and "Inside" both are built on a foundation of obvious voice elements that are filtered or time-stretched to become more musical. Both also stay extremely quiet, occasionally approaching the territory of pure silence that requires careful listening to discern the subtle changes and variations in the recordings.
Two of the tracks are indicative of their titles: "Lost" features plaintive singing elements that are extremely low in the mix; they grow slowly in volume while disorienting time-stretching and unaffected screams and shouts appear, giving a sense of dark and confusing isolation. "Fuck It" is a slap-dash chaotic piece of stuttering sound fragments with Cosey delivering the titular line. Unlike the other pieces, there’s a sense of anger and frustration in the messy sound collage and fragments of voice.
Perhaps the most interesting tracks are the ones in which the voice elements are transformed into instrumentation that, without prior knowledge, one might assume to be just another sample or instrument. The most miniscule vocal sounds on "Mad" are sequenced intoto much more ; they resemble an arpeggiated synthesize and, mixed with the untreated vocals from Cosey, sound like the traditional software-inspired electronica for which the label is known. Similarly, "Crazy" turns syllables into synth leads and percussive clicks that are married with other sounds and shaped into what could be string instruments and, occasionally, untreated bits of vocals.
The closing "Lying" features an interesting approach, too: untreated vocals are meshed with pieces of other words and shaped into what sounds like background singers while other voices become saxophones and steady 4/4 beats. Essentially, a single voice becomes an entire electronic pop track. If nothing else, this album shows that Cosey Fanni Tutti, at least in the metaphorical hands of Ivan Pavlov, is not just an excellent performer, but a captivating instrument in and of herself. The natural character of her voice and the careful structuring and layering of Pavlov's arrangements makes for a lush album composed only of the most basic of sources.
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