this is a new disc from will van gorder's weak sisters project, which he gave to me at the squid affair iv. pretty sure that these were exclusively for his tour, since i can't find any mention of these elsewhere. bummer for you. :)

tour cd-r
[2007, self-released]

over the course of a handful of releases now, a few things have become apparent when it comes to weak sisters noise; proficiency and dynamism. chances are always strong that you're going to get a multitude of different styles all within the same album. that's a firm selling point, right there. this tour cd-r just serves to further my point.

track one begins in denser territory. it's not as overwhelming as it could be, and the panning (static in the left, strangulated distortion to the right) will give it some nice texture. the next one is also of the rumbly variety, but there are more interesting elements to it (the droning motor-like hum in the beginning and a good bit of tonality towards the end), not only that, but the noise itself has some changes as well. this is my kind of dense noise.

this third track, damn, i'm thinking that this is one of the better pieces of noise that i've heard all year. there's a whole lot of character packed into five minutes and thirty-five seconds that makes it wholly unique and worth revisiting (over and over). it'll start off kind of minimally, over an electricity hum you can hear some clickity clackity clamor, then a brief blast of static, silence, and some squealing (like flaherty on the sax) and then it's on into dual repetitious layers of sound and ear drum brutalizing shrill tone pitches. as the track continues to transform there's really great chirping tonework, clearing a path for the impending blaze of dense noise and screaming. so fucking good. especially with those high tones. catchy, catchy, yet devastating if played loud enough. i love this because it's compositional, calculated and destructive.
track four will pick up where the denseness of the previous piece left off. earlier, i said that the first track wasn't as overwhelming as it could be, well this is the could be that i was talking about. there's just enough subtle changes to the sound to prevent it from being trite. the fifth track brings about more dynamics. the sudden pauses, bursts and cut-outs make for an engaging listen. track six is fucking loud, jesus christ. if i kept my computer speakers turned up all the way, i think that shit would start shaking off my desk and counter-tops. yikes. great track. thankfully this isn't wall noise or i might have had a miniature earthquake in my apartment. i love that the following piece is strictly dense noise, but has far less amplitude, if he would've flipped these two around, the results would've been disastrous, ha. the eighth track's a lot more interesting and mostly revolves around screeching, piercing... deafening... tones. highly unsuitable for headphones unless you think that having to use a hearing aid in your twenties is sexy. the closer will revisit those tones, briefly, as an introduction, before the thick noise takes over.

nine tracks, thirty-one minutes. i'd say that that's the best part of this whole deal, being palpable, but that would mean that i'm taking away from the noise that will's making, and that would be dumb. when that noise isn't ferocious, it's either harsh or interesting. sometimes, it's all three. any way you want to look at it, this was very good.

Untitled 3

weak sisters @ splinter squid affair iv. my lower half makes a brief cameo in this video.

untitled cd-r
[200?, self-released]

it seems like vancouver, canada's flatgrey has been making experimental music (mostly harsh noise, but not exclusively) for awhile, but his name's alluded me up until recently. even on slsk i can only find two albums by him, but only one person has them. i'd think that for having some releases on sick buildings' reasonably visible rundownsun imprint (sorry to hear about the break-in! lame), more people would know about lashen, but it doesn't appear that way. in addition to making harsh noise, it seems like he also has a fondness for dub, of all things... but is he a... wait for it... dub specialist? hopefully, one of you got that.

there is no dub here! this is good. honestly, i have no clue about this cd-r that i bought from flatgrey at the splinter squid, and neither did he, ha. as a result, i don't know the name and he doesn't know when it's from, so think of this review more as an introduction to his music, rather than helping you decide what album you should buy.

lashen will rely heavily on dense noise during three of the four tracks on this nearly sixty-seven minute cd-r. i'm not a very big fan of that type of noise, but, fortunately, it's presented in three distinct styles, which will make it easier to digest. after beginning the first untitled track with nearly five minutes of looped high pitched sounds, flatgrey will kick things into gear with great dynamic noisework. it's almost twenty minutes long, but there's a few different elements and changes to it that keep me interested. i love stuff like this. it's not too harsh (aww, where's the feedback?!) and the density of it compliments (but never compromises) the great noise that it's paired with.

track two goes off on a whole other tangent. i did say that there was no dub on this album, but there is a really fucking good loop of hypnotic rhythm on this piece. first it'll play out as is, then it gets a lot louder and distorted (read: is getting even better), then there's some more amplitude tweaking as it gets a lot softer, then when the volume climbs back up it sees a good deal more dense distortion enveloping it. this is thick and suffocating, yet that main beat is still going on in the background. niiice. eventually, the whole thing will just get swallowed up by this albatross of static, completely altering the original feel, yet, again, that rhythm persists.while i praised the first track's wise use of dynamics during its lengthy playing time, this third track has me scratching my head and breathlessly mouthing what the fuck? fans of the rita, prick up your ears, this is thirty-six minutes of unchanging, unrelenting, unbear... dense rumbling. personally, not my thing, but fans of dense noise will surely take to this. i'm actually not sure if it's possible to make bad dense noise. yes, i'm not really a fan, but if people like certain artists whose rumblings all sound the same, wouldn't they like everyone else who does the same thing? it's not like i've seen anyone saying death to false dense noise or anything. i think that i will though, it's funny. anyway, thirty-six minutes of this is like a pop song to you if you heard total slitting of the throats' album, but damn. i can appreciate this stuff live, as it comes across more energetically, but listening to this at home for fun seems insane. you people are nuts, ha.

i dig the closing fourth track, it's a record of some vocal world music, reminiscent of that m.k. maltseva song from the musics of the soviet union 12". i like it, and i like the turntable manipulations that are enhancing it. a little weird, but lots of good.

i'm impressed with flatgrey, and definitely look forward to seeking out more releases. while there may be some (one) tedious tendencies thrown in here, he's proven that that's not the sum of his creativity. it's just a shame that it consumed so much of the disc's playing time, but that's merely my humble opinion.

Untitled 2

flatgrey at the splinter squid affair iv, at the ss marie antoinette (r.i.p.) in seattle. it sucks that i arrived after his set...

split c60
[2006, dutch beer]

mudboy is providence, rhode island's raphael lyon. searching for mudboy on google will net you this result: gay mud and boot fetish picture site. hot. joining lyon is the sprawling visual and sound collective formerly based in lexington, kentucky, auk theatre. it would appear that they've recently relocated to northern florida. i say "they", but i might just be talking about irene moon. auk theatre's members include jeramy midkiff, sara o'keefe, deek hoi, ellen molle', yellow crystal star, christopher cprek (pax titania), trevor tremaine, robert beatty, darryl cook, ben fulton, john ferguson, matt minter as well as moon (she's also in darker florida with pax titania and collection of the late howell bend with a slew of folks, including some auk alum. apparently, howell bend creates the music for auk theatre's visual performances). if you're up on your stuff you'll know that tremaine, beatty and minter are current and former members of hair police. irene moon (stage guise of katja seltmann) is the founder, so i know she's one of the people contributing to the sounds on this cassette. i'm lead to believe that her accomplice here would be minter, since his name is also usually closely attached to this project.this split (put out on one of lieven martens' several labels; dreamtime taped sounds, cauliflower dreams [done], imvated [done], bread & animals...) will start off with mudboy's hungry ghost. it will begin with sparse ambiance, multiple tracks of vocal samples (with delay, for maximum atmosphere) and tinkling chimes. the loud claps that come into play after a few minutes destroy the calmness. thankfully, that element's only around for a short bit. the pace will quicken shortly thereafter, establishing a relatively strong central rhythm for the random sounds and ambiance to play off of. it sounds like there might be some singing happening waaay down in the mix, it's whispery, but i can just barely pick it up. haunted ghost seems to borrow the previous track's music and then manipulate the hell out of it. initially it comes across like a swarm of bees or a race car zipping past you, but will soon settle down. from there, raphael will skip through eerie sounds, including haunting female vocals amidst a droning backdrop. the next progression is into spooky carousel music (the howling wolf sound bytes are a cute touch). it would appear that orphan fairytale's music rubbed off on mudboy. i really dig this part, the keyboard music is bouncy and fun and the presence of wolves just makes it even more fun. all of this does beg one question, though. how the fuck does one haunt a ghost? ha. the keyboards will stay throughout the duration, with the shape of the minimal background being the only thing that will change. also, the claps make a comeback during the closing thirty seconds. the last track, haunted folks, also has a very carousel-esque or carnival midway vibe to it. there's more wolves! i dig the dark, muffled, groaning noise that periodically pops up. the darkness clashing with the whimsical notes is fantastic. oh, and then there's the laughter. well now that's just plain creepy.

Haunted Ghost

i'm absolutely in love with the synth music on auk theatre's opener, auk of the two sisters. incredibly memorable and pretty. interspersed throughout the seven minutes of great music is a little bit of spoken word poetry from irene. despite the propensity for absurdity, what moon's giving us isn't silly and won't detract from the music. actually, i rather like some of what she's saying like "place your roots deep and your blossoms will flourish. place your roots deep and you will snap with the first strong wind." they tend to be on the darker side, but match up remarkably well with the track's mood. call it bewitching. monster auk will also feature some really good music. a bit of upbeat hawaiian guitar that's manipulated a little, will find itself joined by, at first, the sound of a ticking clock and then some vocal samples. one of these sounds like it's from an episode of the original twilight zone. monster will switch its gears into a sparser atmosphere along with the sound of someone or something's ravenous eating. hey, this one has wolf sounds, too! maybe what we're hearing is a wolf eating some kids from mudboy's whacked out carnival. once the feasting stops, the talking starts, but it's just a brief passage from irene. after opening up with cabaret-esque piano music, humors auk catches auk at an absurd peak. it's tracks like this one that make me think that auk theatre could easily, easily, fit in with the whole brutal sfx clan. well, not just this, but their entire m.o.; theatrical, elaborate costumes, absurdity, brilliance. good times. with this track we get that playful piano music and giggling laughter which is immediately followed by a male's voice pretending to be a doctor, diagnosing a patient by tape recording his thoughts during observation: "note to self - black bile fluid in the lungs coughed up in the autumn with a cold and dry condition. symptomatic of a melancholic gnome with a strong depressive and hording nature." oh really? ha. towards the end, all of the diagnoses will get layered over each other in a noisy vocal clusterfuck. eventually, the rhythmic outro music from the previous track pops up as irene bids us adieu. the way that she says goodnight is adorable. ultimately, what i enjoyed the most about auk theatre was how they didn't swap out musicality for absurdity, they find a way to incorporate both. while some might find themselves alienated by the kookier aspects, there's bound to be quite a few people out there who can appreciate it, especially in tandem with the music.

also, be sure to check out auk theatre's begonia society website for plenty of free mp3 downloads as well as lots of videos, for the full auk effect.

auk of the two sisters, live

untitled c30
[2007, psychform]

there are at least two dull knifes.. dull knives... one is a krautrock band. super. the other is a seattle-based four piece consisting of brian (from ear venom?), garek druss ((a) story of rats, ear venom), adam svenson(?) (du hexen hase) and charlotte aurevoir (kount fistula, arachnid arcade, zdefekt, euphondisson (inactive), brigham/mahgrib).
four people coming together to not make very much noise appears to be the theme to this tape. working in dull knife's favor is the fact that this is not quite a lot of things. not quite drone. not quite ambient and it's not quite minimal. the incorporation of these different aspects is remarkable. i really didn't get into this until the third full listen, but then it all clicked, and i was extremely impressed. this group clearly knows what it's doing by taking cues from less sonically interesting genres and managing to craft a sound that's wholly encompassing. the most important factor in dull knife's music is the appreciation for musical structure. without the memorable layers of lush ambiance and repetitious sounds, this wouldn't have been nearly as great as is. side a's october 14th, 2006 is a great example of this as it brings together a repetitious loop of pounded percussion with a lovely layer of autumnal ambiance. autumnal, i think that's the perfect word to describe this music. i'm sitting here drinking a cup of tea, staring outside at the overcast sky and this tape is an absolutely perfect companion. the slightly muffled and distant vocal work accentuates the haunting aura. after five minutes that echoing percussion will fade away leaving a more minimal and droney soundscape which will evolve constantly over the course of the side's nine remaining minutes.
the second side, oddly enough, began as the one that i wasn't very moved by, but, eventually, became the one i fell in love with the most. it will begin with a much more prominent layer of (great) buzzing drone, which is accompanied by beautiful chime-like synth touches. underneath everything you can hear a metallic scraping noise, but it's still a little understated. fast forward to not very long later, and that noise will become as integral to the music as the multiple layers of drone and ambiance is. go further even more and you'll find that things will calm down a bit, seeing a return to the tranquility experienced in the beginning. dissonance will still play a role, just more of a random and sporadically clamoring one.

October 14th, 2006

progression to desolation 12"
[2007, black horizons]

sometimes, due to more extravagantly titled albums, i'll fail to recognize those names which are legitimately indicative of how the albums sound. case in point, progression to desolation by portland, oregon's daryl groetsch. had i taken the title for face value, i'd have a fairly good idea of where the music on this lp was heading. instead, i was surprised, and, really fucking impressed. if you heard the creeping obesity 3" cd put out on chondritic sound this year, you'll have a vague familiarity with this release as well.

side a starts off with a creeping minimal soundscape. it's very brooding synth work and i love it. there's a slight touch of envenomist at play here. while the tone will be maintained throughout (the echoing of it was a great supplement), pulse emitter will slowly begin to add onto it, first with a main layer of sputtering noise and then with some sustained high-pitched tones. initially, that last element will seem more like a way to fill out the sound a bit, but due to their repetitious usage, and the sequence of the tones, they'll muster up a good deal of musicality. once groetsch moves away from that, he'll get into even more catchy tone work from the synthesizer. the sound that he transitions into is drastically different with deeper notes as opposed to the shriller ones, but it's just as memorable. the last couple of minutes will introduce some noisier elements, at last, beginning with a small portion of static before testing our hearing with a very piercing emission. perfect.

the first five minutes of the second side sees me using an adjective that i didn't think i would ever apply to pulse emitter's music: beautiful. there's just such serenity in this music, i was really awed by it, but we all know that beauty is for sissies, so it gets mauled by a layer of dense, rolling distortion. yeah! fuck it up. that's pretty short-lived though, and the track will transform into something resembling a synthetic thunderstorm. if you're imaginative enough, you can close your eyes and trick yourself into thinking that the crackle of vinyl is actually the sound of falling rain, thus completing the illusion. serving as the foundation for all of this, at this point, is a pulsing synth layer. appropriate, yes? the thunderous sounds also fall off rather quickly making for a subdued and, occasionally, droning conclusion.

the direction of pe's music isn't some grand departure, though, it might be one of the few times that you can actually call it music without that word merely being a substitute for "sounds that he made". you can pick pieces from different releases and recognize the elements, but it's the lack of the more jarring features that separates it from the pack. going back to obesity, sure there's a common thread in the overall feel, but the music on progression to desolation is a lot more dynamic, there are more parts that are instantly gratifying when you hear them and he doesn't altogether forgo discord. it all makes for an outstanding album.

Progression to Desolation Side A

here's the first of two cds that i received awhile back from charles goff iii's taped rugs label, out of lawrence, kansas.

bay area abject music festival
[2006, taped rugs productions]

this disc right here captures a disism (the duo of goff and killr mark kaswan) performance from april 30th, 1988 at the university of california at berkley. disregard the fact that this is from 1988.. on second thought, don't. it's important to know that there was older experimental and avant-garde music that sounds like it could've come out, well, i guess 2006 would work perfectly or, now.

for just being two guys, disism is doing quite a lot to keep us paying attention. ollie's laundromat (the ollie, refers to oliver north) weaves together guitar noise, multiple layers of sound bytes (having to do with you know who, without feeling stiflingly political), droning tones, random odd sounds and even a brief bit of sampled percussion towards the end. the only thing i didn't care for about this track were the noises that resembled farting during the final two minutes. i like my scatological humor and my music to be separate, thanks. if it was more of a coincidence, that's unfortunate because it was a fine track, otherwise. pancake make up centers heavily around the guitar once again and also field recordings of animals, at least in the first half of its eight minutes. one of the strengths of this disc so far is the job done with layer panning. there's some clanging going on in the left channel, light and distorted guitar noise in the right channel, then eventually two different vocal samples in both speakers, additionally. there are also some great tape manipulations which segue into the ambient-fueled final third of pancake. very nice.

i'm a huge fan of the guitar, in either conventional or experimental settings, i love it, so i'm definitely enjoying the use of it in he's got the whole pig in his hands. again, awesome panning job here. initially, there's two unique guitar idioms being used. eventually, they'll merge into an entirely new one, yet different sounds of it are segmented between the two speakers, creating an interesting sound. as this one plays out it makes for disism's most musical effort, and i like it a lot. best part? the insertion, and slight manipulation, of the old timey "who's afraid of the big bad wolf?" (frank churchill) sample. the entire last half of hands weighs heavily on a myriad of layered samples, but remains interesting throughout.

the final ten minutes of the disc belong to double stop hop and they'll see disism doing an abrupt about-face in terms of (widely accepted) musicality. violin noise in one speaker, guitar noise (random soloing) in the other, sound bytes and the pleasantries of an air raid siren are just about the sum of double stop hop. there is a more ominous sounding base for all of the other components, something i didn't hear in the three previous tracks.

He's Got the Whole Pig in His Hands

disism @ the bay area abject & unusual music festival 4/30/88

dumpster divebombing lessons c20
[2007, psychform]

gillette, wyoming's charlie martineau represents the darker and (vaguely) drony side of the psychform label with his lessons cassette. after beginning side a's dark beer, porn and a computer with minimal soundscapes, the music will gradually expand to incorporate background ambiance along with sporadic segments of manipulated sounds. charlie will flirt with a darker mood, but won't fully explore those leanings, and dark beer is all the better for it. the accord reached between the more monotonous layers of ambiance and atmosphere and the noisier abstractions ensure that this piece of music is more than just white noise.

the first track of side b, the oddly titled, don't fuck with racoon creatures in berlin... not only maintains the moody theme, but will play it up quite a bit more. i'm not sure if it's really a matter of esperik making darker music, or if the lack of the clattering noise and other layers merely exposes and highlights that base. either way, it's obviously a sparser offering, teetering towards dark ambiance.the side finishes with rite of self-release and this works as a totaling of the different aspects of music that were exhibited throughout the two previous tracks. this time the bleakness is, without a doubt, accentuated. there's plenty of clamor throughout this one, particularly in the oppresive background layer. i like the addition of the random guitar chord abuse. there is a whole lot going on with self-release, and it's all good. given that so much disharmony is occurring, the loop of (what sounds like) a bowed guitar provides a terrific grounding center for all the swells.

Dark Beer, Porn and a Computer