smooth assailing: va - pendu sound

Saturday, May 31, 2008

va - pendu sound

rippers and creepers, vol. 1 c68
[2008, pendu sound]

rippers and creepers does a good job of gathering artists from all over the place: france, the united kingdom, spain, italy, canada, finland, belgium, portugal as well as the united states. when it comes to the u.s., there's more than a slight bias towards the eastern states, with california being the only one west of illinois that's represented, though it does have the most contributors, with seven, and one of those, arachnid arcade, used to be in seattle.

the idea behind this was to have artists submit a two minute long piece of music (give or take) which would either "rip" or "creep", based on how the artist chose to define those adjectives. obviously, your rippers are going to be the blown-out instrumental jams and harsh noise tracks, while the creepers favor mood and subtlety. with that interpretation in mind, the music adheres to these idioms well, for the most part. all of the tracks are intertwined with each other, rather than having one side be devoted to a singular theme, and todd mixed everything together really well, which made it kind of a bitch to separate, but i figured it out, eventually.

side a starts with the weirdo sounds of heteroskeleton (which features arttu from avarus); strange vocals, intermittent sax blurts and random noises coming together in a patchworked blanket of oddball experimentation. that's followed by two blown-out instrumental tantrums, first of which is brooklynites blastocyst with their noisy jamming that i hesitate to even call lo-fi, but i've gotta give the nod to la's pukers, though. it's a little bit easier to hear and the constant whirl of feedback with the terrific drumming does it for me. the feedback love fest continues wonderfully with oubliette's put 'em off in the grave, which easily wins the title of most abrasive track. i love it. ghost moth carries oubliette's noisy drone undercurrent, but heavily sedates it and adds daniel carter's meandering sax blurts over the top of it. this one both rips and creeps. vestigial limb continues to impress with his untitled track. i dig ray's dynamic here between the rumbling clatter, muffled moans and high-pitched whines. atlanta's kristin calvarese serves up a terrific, loud, humming creeper with hidden electronic screams lurking about in the background. buffle's viscal, hmm, neither creeps nor rips, but their catchy, upbeat folk guitar and rhythmic percussion is one of the compilation's high points. climate, by oakland's pink canoes,brings back the stark mood with sparse instrumentation, random electronic buzzes, chiming guitar, drone and chilling ambiance. it's more atmospheric than anything else, but does set a distinct tone. scotland's usurper turn in a fantastic bit of lurching noise with a poke in the eye with a shitty stick. minimal and scratchy, initially, it will eventually turn into a gallop of clattering chaos that increases to a startling amplitude, before dropping back off into choked distortion. italians harshcore provide a droner with understated distorted noise in their amy winehouse; less troubled than the singer herself. fully dilated's the big other does not exist shares its time between digital spew, a high-pitched background whine, distortion and a slow rumble. i like that they really made the most out of their two minutes. the amplified sax and clarinet duo of cincinnati's wasteland jazz unit provides a nice high and low juxtaposition over a complimentary bed of distortion. last live, by portugal's fish & sheep, unfortunately, sounds like it was recorded by someone who couldn't actually get inside of the venue. the jammy free-rock chaos of it was good, though. valerio cosi's ripper is a great piece of overpowering drone which attempts to relegate the saxoloop to a minor supporting role, but the haunting faintness of it makes ripper memorable. santa cruz, ca's howlin' magic urge us to "take a hit of this" with their stoned out rocker, smilesun, and then indiana's pet coffins provide the perfect comedown music with the blissful new york.

bill kouligas's family battle snake kicks off a fantastic side b that comes across as being more focused than the first side was. fbs's repetitious analog synth lines, while mellow, gives rippers and creepers the catchiness than it hadn't really shown up until this point. tallahasse's pax titania follows bill's synth lead and gives us the great, haunted terminal implant. in addition to being more memorable, the track sequencing for this side was absolutely flawless. successive horizontal cognizance by skozey fetisch is an exercise in near locked-groove repetitious bay area oddness. that's followed by another san franciscan group, arachnid arcade, and their soupy distortion and whistling synth tones. it sounds like a monster eating an ice cream truck. josh lay's bad mirror is a pleasant transitory piece of sparse layered drones which lead to someone known for sparse layered drones, mike shiflet. not so much the case this time. shiflet has a good foundation of bubbling distortion, which slowly increases in virility, and random drawn out beeps. when it seems like it's about to get calmer, he hits us with a sheet of shrill noise. ugly, yet, a lovely surprise. kintestu's ending cacophony proves to be the perfect segue to boston's craniopagus, and their track blisters. high-pitch electronic screams, and distorted human ones reek havoc over a throbbing hum. i like! 2 minutes to midnight, by spain's sons of bronson starts out deceptively with distant droning behind light static before shifting into some great waves of mutilated noise before closing out with a series of good staccato tones. ohio's demonologists' (one dude) rad creeping sickness is like the noisy drone of too many people talking at once, combined with more drone and low, wavy undercurrents. i really like the slight rumbling base and haunting spatial synthesizer of toronto's women in tragedy. la chambre verte by france's sorc'henn is beautiful, too, with its lulling sample, minimal field recordings and persistent mechanical hum. nyc's eastern seaboard bring about a return to non-electronic instrumentation with under the red white and blue. despite having a sax, drums, upright bass and cello, this is a bit of a departure from their jazziness. the fast, steady, but not screechy, cello bowing is what wins me over. la's vxpxc make for some nice psychedelia with their warm ambient drone, violin and vocals. californian duo saints begin with minimal droning whines before briefly transforming into warm synth, then abruptly into blown out hum before settling on blown out percussion, which beautifully eases in lanterns' sun-soaked drum n' clang circle. ceasar shift, from nonhorse, is a heavenly track of softly moaning (vocal?) drones and delayed analog manipulations. baltimore's gullwing brings some unique psychedelic experimentation featuring warbling, liquid-like affections and fluttering drone. the compilation ends with panicsville's humorous take on what rippers really are with farting sounds, a giggling female and playful music, à la nihilist youth movement. silly, yes, but i dug the way ortmann decided to go off in his own different direction, while still staying very much on topic.

overall, this was a really good compilation. there wasn't anything that i didn't like and the tracks that didn't make much of an impression on me were definitely in the minority. i had my reservations about the fact that all of the tracks were so short, but i rarely felt like i was getting an incomplete glimpse of something, and also, the shortness helped make it seem like the album was quickly progressing instead of dragging on endlessly, which was nice.

Buffle - Viscal
Sorc'Henn - La Chambre Verte

Pax Titania @ No Fun Fest; Brooklyn, NY 2008