final diagnosis
[2007, crucial bliss]

yes, collapse were a dayton, ohio three-piece consisting of josh fink (meaning, goat tunnel, ghosts of obtuse, kvlt of unicron, plasmic formations, black almas), dan rizer (back from iraq / crack in iraq, the together tapes label, budweiser sprite, shitty vibe smasher, geyser, person under the stairs) and matt reis (teeth collection, antennaeboy, black almas, ghosts of obtuse, kvlt of unicron, goat tunnel, meaning and the epicene imprint). judging by the disc's title, i'm assuming that this, recorded in 2005, was their last release before they called it quits, when rizer split for portland.

this is the first release that i've heard from yes, collapse, and i'm already kicking myself because of it. if final diagnosis is a good indicator, a lot of us have been missing out on some great noise. i do take comfort in the fact that this cd slays, and i have it. yay!
final diagnosis begins in basement scuzz territory, ominously bare noise with faint, but chilling, background synth ambiance. you can hear some clanging and screeching back there, too. slow waves of feedback, noisy rumbles which roll through periodically and then moments of calm. various electronic modulations, more clanging, then some piercing feedback will usher in a freight train of noise before the track winds down. this first piece encapsulates a lot of what i dig about the disc, for one, they'll keep you guessing. they could have a pretty sparse thing going, and then out of nowhere they'll hit you with a maelstrom. another thing is, they use a lot of different sounds as well as noises. which is what you'd hope with three people. to that end, yes, collapse deftly avoided a lot of noise clichés and put together an album that will stick with you after you've heard it.

one thing that they didn't do on the first track, but show off quite a bit throughout the remaining eight, is integrate rhythmic elements. on the second one they add a great repetitious air pressure sound, i don't know what the hell it actually is, but ortmann used it on genesis of the mindbenders, too. that's just the start of it, as they'll add echoing percussion, a catchy (but subtle) synth foundation and a bit of noise, which i'm thinking are reis's affected vocals. sick.

what follows will center around josh's synth, starting out with a catchy, but manipulated series of bell-like tones which gradually become less affected. after pulling you off guard with the serenity of that, in comes a thick wall of distortion, which fights with an electric sputter and loud shriek for a moment, before losing the battle.

the fifth track, this is the one that really drives it home for me. i absolutely love fink's synth work. it's nothing too complex, yet it's ridiculously catchy (isn't that how it usually works out?). his alternating sound between clearer tones and a deeper, more obfuscated one is fantastic. the background's full of static (which itself will waver between mild interference and channel ninety-nine on a tv with no cable), occasional metallic percussion, but matt's terrific vocals (not overly affected) add the essential touch, making this track amazing more amazinger perfect.
there are only two pieces on here that are over ten minutes long, and both of them are great, first is final diagnosis six. after going the minimal route for nearly two minutes, we're struck by blasts of a pretty grating noise, that will dissipate and we're left with sputtering waves. when it comes back, it's a bit less virile, coming off more like a loud buzzing insect. after an orgiastic convergence of electronic drones, buzzes and tones, they'll get into a great rhythmic groove. underneath a repetitious, but distorted base, there's some more killer synth sounds. eventually, this will shift into a newer movement of shorter, rhythmic noise before a nice feedback fueled conclusion.

the other four tracks on final diagnosis all rule, but i'm hoping by now you realize that i'm stoked on this disc. you should be, too. very recommended.

Final Diagnosis 5

Ghosts of Obtuse @ The Waterfront; Dayton, OH, 1/10/07



Below PDX interview w/ Dan Rizer about girls and noise music.

from the idle cylinders
[2007, crucial bliss]

light of the shipwreck is wilmington, delaware's ben fleury-steiner. a couple of ben's other projects are eneg and paradin, and he releases albums under his own name. naturally, he has his own label, too, gears of sand.

first things first, i've got to give it up for the clever artwork / packaging. just looking at the outside cover with its lovely seascape, i think "drone". then, once i open up the cover, i see a bunch of dead fish rotting on a beach. i think "ewww", but if you're like me, and you try to find musical allusions in an album's artwork (futile, more often than not), it really plays with your perceptions, and i liked that.
turns out, cylinders is, in fact, drone, but it's definitely a cut above most drone that i've heard lately. i rode and am riding on an ocean of violent lights, initially, uses some truly killer howling guitar drones (and that's the key, drones, this isn't one long, unflinching bliss out) and slowly brings his galloping snare and cymbal percussion up to the forefront. after a few minutes, we'll start to get periodic affected vocal noise to provide a bit of foreboding background atmosphere. once near the mid-point, ben changes up the percussion a bit as everything briefly dies around it. soon, some new drones will enter the fray, and there will be a continual dynamic where the percussion will cut in and out of the mix. also, there's three stages to this track, each stage will utilize different sounding drones and variations on the same percussive sound while also throwing in some sort of noisy aspect to keep violent lights' growth continual.

in a different light (unintentional pun, i assure you), you could see ben's vocals being in a black metal vein, but they're not the focus, and seeing how they were mixed down relatively low, or otherwise manipulated, they come across more as just additional layers of sound. which works for me, since i dig these drones but am not so keen on bm.

i watched and am watching a cold dead sun rise then explode opens up with a nice acoustic guitar passage via tampa's ric tutlo, before turning the track over to the drum machine percussion and drones. for using a drum machine, i find that the overall tone is fairly organic. sure, a human drummer would've been preferable, but this is a lot less synthetic than it could've sounded, plus i think he did a really good job with the programming. after about three minutes of that, fleury-steiner reverts to a more simplistic drone, keeping it minimal until the ten minute mark, when the drum beats come back. it's also when the droning gets a lot more memorable, since he pairs short, layered drones together with repetitious, drawn out chords. it would've been nice to just hear the guitar parts by themselves, but, that's not going to happen. i'm happy with what's being presented, though.the tribalesque sound of hand drumming ushers in the nineteen minute long closing piece, i swallowed and am swallowing the river ganges, but similar to the acoustic opening of watched, it's merely introductory. shortly after, there's some brief, but memorable, guitar chords, then into some lovely noisy drone, then back to the prior guitar playing. i dig the contradictory sounds of the folkier guitar with feedback drones. next, cymbal-driven percussion pops up, along with some actual guitar riffing, which sounds good, but is fairly buried in the sound and short-lived. once ben gets back to droning, the percussion dies off, until ten minutes in when the beginning drums, as well as the acoustic guitar, are reintroduced. to make a long story not quite as long, previous elements of this track will continue to be used and tossed off as it evolves.

from the idle cylinders was a real impressive introduction into fleury-steiner's oeuvre. where most drone doesn't seem to aspire to be anything more, this definitely does. while the shortest track here is twelve minutes long, the album is quite restless, with ben making the most out of every minute instead of trying to squeeze the most time out of the least effort. while i enjoyed how he crafted his music, continually building and deconstructing as he went along, i must say that it was really his drones that i was the most won over by. i loved the sound of them and he put together some terrific ones. personally, i would love to hear a more minimal approach to light of the shipwreck, which strips away the percussion and leaves just those great drones, because he's clearly onto something here.

I Swallowed and am Swallowing the River Ganges Excerpt (from 0:00 to 8:39)

Ben Fleury-Steiner live somewhere, at some point in time.

oi, i've had a stack of nice looking cds that adam (from crucial blast / bliss) sent me, way too long ago, sitting on my tv. better late than never (i'm hoping).

into the void
[2007, crucial bliss]

fuck. yes. maybe it's because the name of david reed's luasa project was inspired by h.p. lovecraft (the man responsible for the cthulhu sea creature), but reed's aquatic themed releases are his best, in my opinion. necronautical mariner and storms of neptune were both great. hmm, apparently i deleted all of my hive mind stuff so i can't reference sea-level transmission... regardless, into the void is a glorious return to those murky depths. that's especially true when it was appearing as if the lines between reed's envenomist and raelon projects were beginning to blur into one icy synth drone. well, maybe a couple of different drones, but you get what i'm saying.

mariners starts off the forty-one and a half minute set, and once i hear that delayed tempest noise roll through, i know this is going to be promising. david builds up a tumultuous atmosphere with a bit of noise, it's not overbearing and will periodically sweep through, just to make everything seem uneasy. he'll add to that a fantastic drone which is pretty removed from what he'd been doing circa 2006, sounding decidedly less synthy. anyhow, that drone is auxiliary, the main attraction is the perfect storm of sound that's threatening to capsize the track. this is bleak in all the right ways.for dark matter, we venture below deck and the results are title appropriate. it's hauntingly bare, with a mechanical sound (like something i'd imagine you'd hear in the hull of a ship), which keeps banging, droning, and cycling over again. now, the buzzing drones which slowly swing in and out of matter's framework take on a more suspenseful and chilling tone as the industrial noise subsides into soothing undulations.

that feeling will lend itself to the vast spectral transmissions as well. pendulum-like drones (or likewise ruminations) are commonplace on into the void, and all for the better, i say. the ebb and flow of the sound makes me think of waves, so i feel more in tune with reed's theme. it's also incredibly calming, particularly in this setting since there appears to be an air of optimism in these layered drones. the supportive sound of the rolling tide in the background certainly adds to the tranquility.

no less meditative is gravitational pull, despite the fact that void's waters have now grown a little restless. even though there's a more forceful sound to the aquatic noise, neither the low drone in the backdrop nor the celestial synth ambiance will match it in mood, and when all of those pieces are put together, the lighter aspect comes out being the most prominent. it's a nice feat considering that the noise is louder than everything else.the near fourteen minutes of the final track, cosmic reaches, don't aspire to be psychedelic, but rather, represent that dark part of space, you know, the part where no one hears you scream. this cold, detached feel should be familiar to luasa fans, but it's particularly stunning in this setting. on a small scale, what he's doing seems pretty basic, you've got multiple layers of drones and loops and a more dynamic noise which subtly haunts the background. cosmic reaches isn't about what he's doing as much as what david's using. those slow, alternating, slightly delayed drones are brilliant. actually, the way that every sound deliberately creeps by does give off an impression of gravity-less space. wow, someone whose track titles are actually representative of the music, who would've thought?

i haven't tracked down every one of luasa raelon's albums (but i do have a bunch), and i feel pretty confident that into the void will be regarded as one of david reed's best works. it's certainly up there with storms of neptune as my favorite.

Spectral Transmissions

Envenomist @ Red Room; Kalamazoo, MI, 10/12/07

untitled 7"
[2008, sweet rot]

ah, the joys of p2p. i first downloaded these guys' demo cd-r on a whim a few months back because i liked the name (i still need to get my hands on some christian meth). anyway, for a band with meth in their name, i was pretty fucking impressed. come to find out that i was vaguely familiar with drummer / singer kyle raquipiso from his work with leper print (lo-fi synth punk), another random download. what? i like puns and meth, big deal. kyle's also in artificial limbs (darker synth punk) and flappers (upbeat garage rock). the vancouver (canada)-based sweet rot (named after the hubble bubble song, i'm hoping) throws out an affiliation with fellow portland band night wounds, but i haven't found any proof of that (mattey confirmed that he's playing guitar for them now). damn, the more that i'm researching them, the more i'm finding previous bands that i know; singer / guitarist mattey hubele was in angular synth-rockers the swimmers, a band that wrote the best (only?) musical tribute to the hot pocket. i can't find much out about their third member / guitarist, matt nice from seattle.

this seven inch kicks off rather emphatically with bus rides. it's a great three minute rocker that's not short on personality. the first thing that you'll notice is the unique delivery of those slightly distorted vocals. it's very catchy and has this kind of youthful whimsy to me. as for the music, it has the same drive to it that the singing does, but once they cut off, the band breaks into a noisy jam session. my favorite part is the dynamic between the loud cymbal-fueled percussion and then the switch to a simple, delayed, guitar riff and the kick drum. from there, they go into a calmer instrumental passage, led by the ever-present tambourine, before repeating the cycle again. this time, though, when they circle back around to the slower passage, they'll add (more traditional) singing, which is in great harmony with the music. they'll finish up by rocking out. whew.
while everything that meth teeth is doing is great, there's definitely two things that stick out as being highlights: the singing. i find that there's always something to appreciate in the melody and how well it works with the music. the second thing is the twangy factor brought in by matt's guitar playing. i'm a big fan of bluegrass and americana, so i can appreciate the sound of it, especially when it's in conjunction with delay effects and those great lo-fi vocals. both of those elements take center stage on unemployment forever. nice's at his most memorable while mattey's minimal approach of a solitary delayed strum every now and then works sublimely, most notably on the instrumental section which primarily accounts for unemployment's hook. if i'm lucky, i can make out 1/3, maybe 1/2, of what they're actually singing about, but i'm not concerned. all i know is that it sounds terrific, and that's good enough for me.

admittedly, on to my good friend, i do wish i could pick up on more of the lyrics, but that's just because i want to sing along. i've figured out half of the hook, but there's too much something something something in between for it to work out. great song, and meth teeth's unsung hero might just be the tambourine. kyle's drumming is great throughout, but with the tambourine, it's more memorable.
the closer, boring artifacts, lacks the immediacy of the other songs, but it's far from filler. the instrumentation still sticks with you, but there's no chorus or dynamic instrumental punch to change things up. this one relies more on repetition, with the verses and the music. the latter remains tight, with a nice bouncy rhythm despite the fact that the song's not so upbeat. i think what i found missing was that the singing didn't grab me as much as it did before, since it's more subdued, but i've definitely warmed up to it the more that i've listened to it. despite what i said a minute ago, there is an instrumental punch to boring artifacts, but it comes at the very end, in the form of thirty seconds of sparse, drawn out chords from one guitar, plucks from another and a mellow drum roll which make for a great ending to the record.

i feel pretty confident in saying that there will be precious few things that i buy for five dollars this year that'll make me as happy as this did. also, expect a full length lp from these guys around summertime.

To My Good Friend

check their myspace or last.fm pages to hear more.