Wednesday, March 28, 2007
locust sympathizer
wyoming, 1873 c10
[2005, stentorian tapes]
buffalo, new york's, criminally unheard of locust sympathizer consists of benjamin hockenberry and christopher drysdale. benjamin had the nice looking bit rot reviews blog going on for like a month, but there hasn't been any action on that site in almost a year. you may also know him as burlapwax on last.fm. the duo incorporate some interesting, as well as
unique in their chosen field (noise), instrumentation including a banjo and an electric washtub bass. i love me same banjee, but sadly, i don't think it was employed on this here release.
seriously, how am i the first person to comment on how awesome this tape is!? crazy. all the better for me, i s'pose. the noise reviews blog, also mysteriously non-updated in quite some time, reviewed this twosome's john henry 3" cd-r and said something along the lines of it being the most annoying noise he's ever heard and that it 'made me want to kill myself'. keep in mind that these were both positive assessments. while i, unfortunately, cannot comment on how suicidally superb that disc was, since i've yet to hear it, i can say that this doesn't make me want to die, but it does make me want to listen over and over and over again. which is the greater compliment? eh eh... who knows, but i hold this tape in high regard.
wyoming, 1873 appears to be locust sympathizer's first release. how stentorian, all the way on the opposite side of the country, came to release this is beyond me. glad it happened though. the rocky mountain locust opens up the tape and there's that beautiful plugged in input jack sound that i love to hear (see the recent review for panicsville for more on that). there's some other noises added to this that i can't even call. pretty sure that they have either something to do with the washtub bass or maybe just the tub itself, but it's fantastic. as it gains some steam it gets progressively noisier, throw in some feedback, then back to repetitious sounds and back to noise again. my god this is beautiful. another nice thing that was mentioned in the john henry review was how locust sympathizer can be astonishingly harsh, but that they don't need thousands of effects pedals to pull it off. that rings true on this release as well. the last minute of the side when all the noise drops off and it's back to the catchy bit and hums, fine moments.
the second side's wyoming 1873 is far more brutal than what we were previously treated to. static and hums are barely perceptible over the sheer racket that they're producing. i think i can hear some guitar noise tossed in, too. ahh, now a feedback solo, i'm in heaven! there's some metal percussion that'll rudely interrupt said solo, then it's back to a full bore onslaught to finish things up. this is sweaty as hell. all i can say is that these dudes need to get famous so that i can sell this tape on ebay for major loot someday.
since this cassette is so out of print that the label doesn't even exist anymore, i'll do you a favor and upload side b. if you want the whole thing, you know where to find me. or maybe you don't, but some of you do.
Wyoming 1873
[2005, stentorian tapes]
buffalo, new york's, criminally unheard of locust sympathizer consists of benjamin hockenberry and christopher drysdale. benjamin had the nice looking bit rot reviews blog going on for like a month, but there hasn't been any action on that site in almost a year. you may also know him as burlapwax on last.fm. the duo incorporate some interesting, as well as
unique in their chosen field (noise), instrumentation including a banjo and an electric washtub bass. i love me same banjee, but sadly, i don't think it was employed on this here release.seriously, how am i the first person to comment on how awesome this tape is!? crazy. all the better for me, i s'pose. the noise reviews blog, also mysteriously non-updated in quite some time, reviewed this twosome's john henry 3" cd-r and said something along the lines of it being the most annoying noise he's ever heard and that it 'made me want to kill myself'. keep in mind that these were both positive assessments. while i, unfortunately, cannot comment on how suicidally superb that disc was, since i've yet to hear it, i can say that this doesn't make me want to die, but it does make me want to listen over and over and over again. which is the greater compliment? eh eh... who knows, but i hold this tape in high regard.
wyoming, 1873 appears to be locust sympathizer's first release. how stentorian, all the way on the opposite side of the country, came to release this is beyond me. glad it happened though. the rocky mountain locust opens up the tape and there's that beautiful plugged in input jack sound that i love to hear (see the recent review for panicsville for more on that). there's some other noises added to this that i can't even call. pretty sure that they have either something to do with the washtub bass or maybe just the tub itself, but it's fantastic. as it gains some steam it gets progressively noisier, throw in some feedback, then back to repetitious sounds and back to noise again. my god this is beautiful. another nice thing that was mentioned in the john henry review was how locust sympathizer can be astonishingly harsh, but that they don't need thousands of effects pedals to pull it off. that rings true on this release as well. the last minute of the side when all the noise drops off and it's back to the catchy bit and hums, fine moments.
the second side's wyoming 1873 is far more brutal than what we were previously treated to. static and hums are barely perceptible over the sheer racket that they're producing. i think i can hear some guitar noise tossed in, too. ahh, now a feedback solo, i'm in heaven! there's some metal percussion that'll rudely interrupt said solo, then it's back to a full bore onslaught to finish things up. this is sweaty as hell. all i can say is that these dudes need to get famous so that i can sell this tape on ebay for major loot someday.since this cassette is so out of print that the label doesn't even exist anymore, i'll do you a favor and upload side b. if you want the whole thing, you know where to find me. or maybe you don't, but some of you do.
Wyoming 1873
:: posted by avant gardening, 11:02 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Avantgardening -- thanks for the review! I've been wanting to get Bit Rot going again for a long time now...been busy with finishing up a degree and obtaining gainful employ. Kudos for uploading the track!
Cheers,
Ben
Cheers,
Ben
yeah, that sounds like it might take a little precedence over reviewing noise, ha.