- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Premiered first at Sonar 2000, this release could very well be an impressionistic aural painting of a thunderstorm which gets closer and closer, unleashes its wrath and then breaks.
For over two minutes it (a 43 minute-long one-tracker) is completely silent. At the 2:10 mark, a stab of a guitar riff, ten seconds later another seemingly identical one. After a succession of twelve almost equally spaced apart stabs they begin to arrive more frequently, spaced apart now only by five seconds of silence. The frequency of attacks increases before long as it's now down to two seconds. 5¬Ω minutes into the disc the storm arrives with a barrage of guitarrorism from heavy metal riffs all played simultaneously. Layers upon layers appear to flow in but for all I know it might have been done all on a four-track.
I remember doing recordings like this as a teenager on a four-track recorder, so I can safely say it is quite possible to trick the listener into believing they're hearing more than what's really there. If your ears haven't bled dry by the 32¬Ω minute mark then congratulations! You're rewarded by silence again. The silence continues through the end of the disc, without surprise stabs thrown in to scare you. At the end I'm left with a few issues with this disc. Are we, the listener supposed to question the purpose of this CD? I am having a hard time trying to figure out what type of person would actually enjoy this and listen repeatedly over time. I'm also wondering if this was a knock-off for Lopez or did he spend years making this absolutely perfect. For me, this recording could be very handy at stop lights when some chump in the next car is blaring tacky rock-rap, tired classic rock or unbearable pop. I'm sure it could also possibly into uses like voice mail or promotional radio spots down at the station too.
sample:
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/connellyblondeexodus.jpg)
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/rieflinconnellylargo.jpg)
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/callascavengers.jpg)
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/fluxprivate.jpg)
- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/jellobecome.jpg)
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- Carl Thien with Jon Whitney
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/lemonjellyky.jpg)
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/fluxprivate.jpg)
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The man known as Thighpaulsandra could very well be the definition of a modern musical mad scientist—pure genius with a maniacal manifestation of sound. His debut Eskaton full-length release (don't get all semantic on me, this isn't his first full-length nor first Eskaton release) comes as a double CD of all new material featuring contributions from members of Coil, Spiritualized and Julian Cope's band as well as his mum.
The set is incredible yet difficult to swallow at once, with over 2¼ hours of music which can be as non-sequitur within movements as it is between tracks. He has drawn blood from much of his influencors, with elements of modern classical, jazz, art-rock and electronic composers swirled into a magickal mystical audio tapestry. The styles range from lengthy neo-classical half-hour tracks like each disc's closers to angst-filled songs echoing prog-rock masters such as "The Angelica Declaration" or "Home Butt Club." Deep drones provide background for the 13-minute "Optical Black" which features a spoken John Balance bit, sped up without a pitch increase while an intense improvisational-ish piece "Abuse Foundation IV" for clarinet, marimba, violin, percussion and processed electronics follows. Coil fans will definitely hear the characteristics of recent releases shining through electronic drones or glistening piano bits, yet they might be a bit offset by the general underlying free-form aesthetic, loss of congruency, or the creepy uneasiness which has caused panic attacks in one Coil fan from Los Angeles. Don't fear, however, it makes this disc an entirely different adventure from the more frequently travelled roads in the dark series and will prove to be a substantial release once it's completely digested and becomes part of your system.
samples:
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- Tulse Luper
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![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/repeatselect.gif)
Repeat is the duo of Swiss percussionist Jason Kahn and Toshimaru Nakamura, who plays an empty mixing board feeding back into itself and wired out to a sampler. He tweaks the high-pitched feedback, and samples it in real-time. You may remember Nakamura from last year's fantastic "Four Focuses" CD, in which he performed duos with Sachiko M, Otomo Yoshihide, and the great Martin Tetreault. Both Nakamura and Kahn have been active in the international improvised music community for at least a decade, and Repeat may be their attempt to expand their audience beyond the already initiated.
What is most unexpected is how close this duo resembles the post-techno sound being set forth by labels such as Raster-Music and Karaoke Kalk. Nakamura's mixing desk shimmers with pleasant tones (yes, actual tones!), as well as the expected high-pitched squiggles. Kahn's metallic scraping and occasional synthesizer repeat simple melodic phrases, and his more traditional percussion even keeps a steady beat. In the album's closing track, Kahn's lightly stuck bowls ring and combine with a flute-like sound (the origin of which I will not attempt to locate), for an effect not dissimilar to polite New Age. From two musicians who have existed for years at the outside of the improvised music community, it is certainly novel to hear these song-like forms emerge. There are edgy moments, but not many, so if this is some listener's way into the potentially alienating world of electro-acoustic improvised music, then that's just fine with me. As it is, it's pleasant enough, and if I didn't know who these folks were, I wouldn't think twice about how oddly normal it was.
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
![](http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/images/vladislavanima.jpg)
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