For the second volume of these doctrinaire anthologies, Sub Rosa haswidened its already absurdly large scope even further, now alsoattempting to encompass movements in early 90's techno, 60's free jazzand early 80's industrial in addition to the already expansive universeof classic and modern avant-garde and minimalist composers thatdominated the first compilation. While I admire the tracks chosen —many of them are indeed rare and unreleased — curator Guy Marc Hinant'sthesis is getting ever more tenuous. The compilation opens with"Incantation for Tape" (1953), a brief tape composition by concretemusic innovators Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, which seguesinto a longer tape collage by Luc Ferrari, certainly a master of theform. Listening to "Visage V" (1958-9), you may notice intensesimilarities to Jim O'Rourke's recent laptop-based work. This is not acoincidence, as parts of O'Rourke's I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And a 1, 2, 3, 4seem to have been a direct, unacknowledged "homage" to Ferrari's work.Tod Dockstader's epic "Aerial>Song" (2002) is a gloriouscontinuation of the groundbreaking work he composed in the 1960's —amazingly elaborate soundscapes like "Apocalypse" and "Water Music".Morton Subotnick's pre-Silver Apples of the Moon "Mandolin"(1962) is a lovely, subtle piece combining bells, windchimes and warmlycomplex electronic oscillations. My favorite track by far on thiscollection is "Space travel w/changing choral textures" (1983), a briefsoundpiece by the incomparable Alan R. Splet. Splet famously designedthe sound for many of filmmaker David Lynch's best works, including Eraserhead.Anyone familiar with Lynch's films understands the indispensable impactof the densely surreal, dark and spacious soundtracks created by thenearly-blind Splet. The second disc opens with "Bronchus One.1" (1991),an early sketch of an Autechre track destined for their classic firstalbum Incunabula. It's enjoyable to hear Sean Booth and RobBrown flash back to the days when their music was still fresh, relevantand listenable. The disc also includes relatively rare contributionsfrom the early days of experimental techno, with Choose's "Purzuit ovNoize" (1994) and Woody McBride's "Pulp" (1993) — both darkly pulsatingslabs of analog minimalism. The compilation takes a nose dive into thegutters of early industrial with rare tracks from Laibach and SPK.Laibach's "Industrial Ambients" (1980-82) is a collage of fieldrecordings of actual factory machinery, complete with the murkyklingklang and coldly rhythmic atmosphere of Deutschland's industrialworld leadership. After the brief, inscrutable tangent to a thereminpiece from 1936, the collection ends with a couple of off-topiccontributions by Sun Ra and Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart. It'struly difficult to understand how Sun Ra's cosmic free jazz orBeefheart's primitivist blues fit into the scheme, as neither of thesetracks contain significant electronic instrumentation. The disc alsocontains a Quicktime video clip of Beefheart performing the track circa1969, which is interesting, but ultimately irrelevant. I wholeheartedlyrecommend volume two of Sub Rosa's Anthology of Noise and Electronic Musicnot for its thematic coherence, which is nonexistent, but for the rareand unreleased tracks, which make the compilation worth the price ofadmission. samples:
- Alan R. Splet - Space travel w/changing choral textures
- Autechre - Brochus One.1
- Laibach - Industrial Ambients
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