Reviews:
(Blastitude no.8) Yep, I'm like you, whenever I get a compilation album of any kind, I usually listen to it once or twice, and then it ends up stowed away in the back of my collection. This is strange, because I don't even subscribe to the cliche that compilation LPs feature just "leftovers" and "outtakes that were taken out for a reason". In fact, compilation records often blow me away. For example, the CDs that come with zines like Bananafish, Muckraker, and Ptolemaic Terrascope are always great. I've got a three-record set on Impulse called Energy Essentials that I wouldn't part with for anything. Hell, I've even got an '80s pop compilation that I'll never part with, because it has Spandau Ballet's "True" on it. This LP from Public Eyesore seems destined for the same lofty status -- it might even be the most impressive various artists record in my collection right now. Hats off to Public Eyesore CEO Bryan Day. Here's what he's assembled for us, in order: 3 minutes of great stark & squelching solo electronics by one Ando Kunihiro. A few seconds in it reveals itself to be cello (actually contrabass -- ed.) run through effects. Puts me in the mind of Motoharu Yoshizawa's solo bass improvising, of course, but also of Michigan resident John Olson's naked-ass barely-released "improvised handmade electronics" trilogy (Bone Columns, Sand-Bagged Lagoon, and Double Right Hands). Ends suddenly to the applause of 3-4 people. Ando plays in the group Kangaroo Note, with a CD-R also on Public Eyesore. (See elsewhere this page -- ed.) Monotract continue to get weirder and goofier, here using gibbering echoey vocals to elevate a dada-improv opening into a no-wave rocker into a very suavely done backwards-tape collage-type thing. With this track, Monotract have practically become the Boredoms -- they really are on that level. New Port are an improv electric guitar duo that continue to carve out a unique sound in a limited genre. I have yet to hear a New Port full-length (one is forthcoming, yet again on Public Eyesore), but the two short comp tracks I've heard (on EFCSSCDR and here) have been totally head-cleaning. They use the same harsh tones as their Minneapolis improv electric guitar duo forbears Negro (a/k/a Modehji Freeman), but with a more sparse approach -- not necessarily quieter, but leaving much more space. (Note: the only Negro I've ever heard was on the cassette that came with Muckraker #...6? New Port is much more spacious (chill?) than that release, anyway...) Solmania is/are one of the biggest 'stars' on this comp, a somewhat "old-school" Japanoisician with releases on the Alchemy label. His/her/their track is great; it's called "'loop 7," and features some stopping-and-starting squelching electronics that don't actually sound looped, just minimalist, and are soon overlaid with great streaming noise that cuts in and out and changes frequencies, and also doesn't actually sound looped, just minimalist. Flying Luttenbachers contribute "dog death," a very strange track that starts with dirgey bass drone that is quickly overtaken by crazy loud-but-strangely-airy electronic treatments. After this shitstorm subsides, aggressive free drum music emerges from the mix, and I finally start to believe that this is actually a Luttenbachers track. It is rare to hear a free music drummer, even the good ones, and hear a truly distinctive approach. Graves, Murray, Bennink, and Oxley are distinctive, to name four....and whaddayaknow, Weasel Walter is right up there with 'em. Here, his playing is mixed strangely enough to be distinctive by default, but his singular musicality burns through anyway, particularly the willfully superhuman volume and power and weird boxing syncopations. Believe the hype -- he really is combining death metal with free jazz, and he seems to be getting better as he goes. I'm guessing this track is a fervent duo for contrabass and drums recorded in an empty warehouse in Chicago and then post-produced to hell for inclusion herein. Fukktron chip in "cd," which you might remember as also appearing on the Fukktron & Hair and Nails CD-R, also on Public Eyesore, also reviewed on this very web page. Up there, I call it "one of the best new rock songs I've heard this entire year," so I certainly don't mind having it show up again, especially here, as it's backbeat is a welcome rock foundation in the fairly raging sea that has come before it. Thurston Moore floats you all the way to shore, that is, the end of side one, with a calm pretty piece called "o michigan." Soft woodsy chord strums that hum softly and evolve into a drony shuffle. Ends with a snippet from some record, Alice Cooper I believe. No obligatory obvious 'noise' or 'improv,' just calm soulful hush-folk, a style also heard to great effect on the "Lydia's Moth/Not Me" 10-inch by the Moore/Tom Surgal duo. And, when I think about it, the Klangenfarbenmelodie performance released by Corpus Hermeticum, even though it's louder, is still basically languid hush-folk.) And now for side two! Jonas Lindgren kicks it off with "myrornas krig - vit." It starts with Sukora-ish silence (room hum and eventual quiet crinkle). Not so Sukora-ish is the way the crinkle gets steadily louder as the piece goes. After a bit, other electronic night-time insect whirrs and skipping runout groove ambiances creep in, and, because you'll probably have your stereo up loud because of the intro, it might get kind of scary. I don't know who Billy? is, but they're next with "y-tok," which is more on the computer/digital/'glitch' end of the noise spectrum. Is this what Pimmon and Seht sound like? I think so, as I've heard both of those bands, er, guys, er, projects before, and I think I like both of 'em. Like I say elsewhere in this issue of Blastitude, it's my elevator music, and Billy? does it well too. Laced Blue offer "A Pool Wound," a short, cavernous guitar droneout. Very short, in fact; before you know it, you're right into the next track, Kazumoto Ondo & Yoko Sato's "Yoko Is A Punk Rocker." It sounds more like Nurse With Wound than it does the Ramones, as echoed lamenting/ chanting female vocals duet with icy French art-woman vocals, alternated with harsh blasts of noise and a couple other disorienting effects. The eerie lamenting/chanting vocals really put a nice spin on this track. Next is Cornucopia, from Puerto Rico; I've heard one-half of Cornucopia, Jorge Castro, play some calm and pretty guitar stuff in a duet with Carlos Giffoni (see review last issue), but the Cornucopia track on here is some harsh, screaming noise. However, whenever the noise intermittently breaks into strangely funky lock grooves, I somehow catch a whiff of Castro's more 'ambient' sound. Following that particular Cornucopia track with a track by harsh, screaming noise maven John Wiese is striking, as they both work at a very similar intensity and within more or less the exact same tonal frequency. If you're not actually looking at the vinyl to see when the needle goes from one band to the next, you might easily mistake them for the same track. In retrospect, the obvious difference is that Wiese never breaks into the lock grooves that Cornucopia do. Next is "She's Laughing At Me" by Sickness, another band I've never heard of, and surprise, it's ALSO in the same frequency/intensity parameter as the Cornucopia and Wiese offerings, the compilation's third straight track of harsh streaming noise. You could say that the programming of the LP isn't balanced or varied enough, but now that I know what's going on, I like to see it in theoretically visual terms, the three consecutive harsh noise tracks forming a little monochromatic clot on one little section of one side of the LP. Demarcating this theoretical clot further is the final track by Automobile. It also uses noisy sounds, but they seem more acoustic in nature, and are played live in a room, rather than run direct into a recording unit. Most importantly, the sounds are made spaciously and calmly, creating a piece more still, empty, and quiet than the last three. Public Eyesore CEO and presumably, the compiler of this LP, Bryan Day is in Automobile, and possibly may be involved with some of the other otherwise-unknown-to-me artists on here. In fact, I'd like to know more about most everyone on here, which is the sign of a good comp. -Brad Sonder
(Bananafish no.16) The Analogous Indirect compilation asks, "Do teenagers still huff boiled hoofs in the parking lots of 7-11, out back, by the dumpster?" There is a lot of hard protein here: Solmania's resurrection of the decimated growls of furnace birds, having stalked stock car morticians, gorging themselves on scraps; Jonas Lindgren's electronic faux-field recordings, which I'd like to propose using as a soundtrack to my theater piece Betrayed by the Sleeping Bag; the electronic loops-and-edits sundae by Billy?, with backward percussion jimmies, crushed noise-nuts, and dollops of silver; and Cornucopia's constipated noise ow-wooo. Sickness's "She's Laughing at Me" resembles a kayaking decision gone wrong - corrugated blurs of noise fly downward and explode, guffawing sirens sip something-stolen margaritas from glass turbines. "Departing 59" by Automobile is also noteworthy as a document of the dematerialization of an unfinished Bartók string quartet, mysteriously appearing during crocidolite removal at an abandoned insane asylum. - S. Glass
(Chain D.L.K. 12/22/2002) Public Eyesore # 22, released in 2000 on a dear old 12" vinyl slab. Lots of veterans, a few well-known artists (Thurston Moore, The Flying Luttenbachers) and a number of interesting "minor" performers - which sums the Public Eyesore catalog and policy quite well, I'd say. Also music-wise, with a mix of harsh noise (New Port, Solmania, Jonas Lindgren, Automobile, Cornucopia and Sickness), improvisation, non-standard electronics and extreme free-jazz. Best moments in my humble opinion: Thurston Moore with a Fahey-esque strummed acoustic piece, the duet between Kazumoto Endo and Yoko Sato (experimental vocal collages with bursts of guitar feedback), and of course Cornucopia and Sickness. Boy, can these two acts deliver the noise. Brutal and in your face. - Eugenio Maggi
(Dead Angel no.45) Strange sounds from a wild variety of people, including Monotract, Thurston Moore, Solmania (he's still around!), the Flying Luttenbachers, and others you never heard of. It's definitely not for the weak -- the very first track on side one, Ando Kumihiro's "contrast zero," is guaranteed to clear the room of all who do not enjoy weird skronking noises, which is good, because afterwards you won't have any conversational babble to distract you from the rest of the album. Monotract's offering, "in gai & dan," is possibly even stranger (although easier to listen to) -- over a wobbling anti-percussion track of sorts, somebody mutters and croons like a drunken lounge singer while someone clatters aimlessly about, until it all briefly turns into a "song" of sorts, only to break apart into weirdly-processed chattering vox before returning to something vaguely resembling actual music (but only for a moment). Solmania's track, "loop 7," is full of the catastrophic noise guitar for which he's known, and sounds like a jet airplane being sucked into a garbage compactor -- eek! The contribution from the Flying Luttenbachers ("dog death") is an even more creatively addled hodgepodge of strange sounds that swirl and whirl like miniature tornadoes racing across the landscape; Fukktron's "cd" is apparently the result of mixing together many segments of butchered and deformed skipping CDs and sounds like a grotesque form of heavy metal from Mars. Thurston Moore's "o michigan" appears to be snippets of songs from Michigan artists, weaved into his own guitar work (i think); as much as it pains me to admit it (i really don't like Sonic Youth), this is probably the most cohesive thing on the album.... The flip side of the album (yes, this is an actual real live LP, like an artifact of the past or something) is pretty much more of the same art-damaged aesthetic. I like the Jonas Lindgren track ("myronrnas krig-vit" -- where do they come up with these titles?), which begins as a low rumble (possibly amplified tape hiss); as the track progresses, crunchy noises start to eat away at the foundation in menacing fashion as evil hissing noises rise in the background. Of the seven other tracks on the second side, the ones i like best are "Yoko is a Punk Rocker" ( a "duet" of sorts between Kazumato Endo and Yoko Sato featuring Sato's voice in different modes -- singing, laughing, conversing -- laid over in snippets as shots o' white noise shatter the track from time to time), John Wiese's "Astronomy" (a noisy collision of crazed sounds), and Automobile's "Departing 52," a low-key stretch of violin-scraping and faint crashing sounds like glass bottles being dropped out a window. As noise collections go, this is one of the more interesting ones.... - RKF
(Neo-Barbaric no.16) Ah, whiney screechy string slander poking holes in electronic hummmm and amp distortion / feedback. It is like using a mile long sheet of tableture to give yourself one long paper cut across the face and ear to ear. (Because you sure as hell couldn't find anything better to do with tableture!) Much of this is minimal / single layered short scrapes and squeals, but at other times it fleshes out a little and creates a formidable wall of chaos and teeth grinding. I'd say that it actually culls quite enough diversity out of its simplicity to make this CD on head scratching, soul searching, question marking, impractical listen of love. You have to give it time. The first few tracks are to scare away closed minded listeners, but once you get into the thicker, more succulent innards of this thing, you'll really be able to appreciate its style. - CC
(Vital Weekly no.290) Under the title of 'Analogous Indirect' we find a whole bunch of noise makers, who present their own view on the subject matter. Available as LP and CDR. The noise found here operates more in the lo-fi improv areas. Scratchy guitars, fuzzy guitars, crashed cymbals, tweaked drums and of course the real noise. We welcome Solmania back on the front in very noisy outing. Other fine moments are by Flying Luttenbachers in a total free improv mood, Thurston Moore's unnoisy guitar pluckings, Jonas Lindgren's cracklings and hiss. Most of the tracks on the second side (even the CDR lists them as 'front' and 'back') are more in the noise/industrial vein (with people like Kazumoto Endo/Yoko Sato, Cornucopia, John Wiese) and Sickness. The shortness of the tracks create a variety that makes this more enjoyable then the usual one hour feedback orchestra. - Frans de Waard
(Koma no. 11) Analogous Indirect is a compilation, on cd and lp, released in 'o0: showcase for oddity, purely free-improvvisation, ampli-distortion, noise making, - there's Thurston Moore between these 15, - but he's one of those few playing calmly here, - folk instrumental, - i'd state it doesn't impress me enough to be remembered. I know, i'm blasphemous. Anyway, in this cd You find interesting stuff if You're into glitches sonorities, - You know, some people love to use scratched cd's for making sounds, or just buzzing a fm signal for hours. The opening track, Ando Kunihiro's, is even live performed. Flying Luttenbachers are very disquieting, nice ill-bient. Fukktron play pretty different from others, They have a song-form, with percussions, voices and guitar, - but all this in a perverse way of being. Lots of lovely chaos. - Jesus, Wiese and Sickness' tracks made bleeding my ears: friends, never hear a cd compilation of noise makers You don't know with headphones: industrial noise, - i'll never understand You. But, luckily, there's Automobile to close this cd, with a quiet ambient, - always not much reassuring, with violin, reverb, and noisy sounds. - A compilation for un-builders (hopefully this word does a sense for You). - Paolo Miceli
(Apersand Etcetera 2002_10) 15 tracks of noise, improv and mo(o)re that creates a wild flow – divided into front & back suggesting a vinyl origin. Ande Kuniharo plays around with a violin or guitar and electronica, stretching and bending notes in an unusual solo, and into a series of group works. Monotract start with scatty vocals and slow jazz before shifting into a driving groove which breaks down, returns and breaks again; noisy group work on drums/guitar/violin at least from New Port; while Solmania scrape a guitar and then put up a wall of sound which varies pleasantly and has textures through it. The Flying Luttenbachers have a lighter mood from banging percussion and varied live electronics and Fukktron deliver punky guitar/drums with a strong solo and vocals at the end. Thurston Moore's lovely acoustic guitar solo emerges from a recording of movement and children and then passes into a Fripp-like solo over a strong bass. End of -front-. The second part opens with some electronica: Jonas Lindgren with vents and crackling, buzzes and pulses; Billy? Has whirling tapes, jazz samples, electro-noises; and Laced Blue a big buzzing hum drone with pulses and sirens through it. A very different mood from Kazumoto Endo and Yoko Sato with a declaimed Japanese text, background singing/humming interrupted in the second part by bursts of noise, becoming quite frightening/ed before closing back down. Then three big noise tracks – Cornucopias wall of sounds, John Wiese varied drone with bangs in and Sickness' group assault with some light reliefs. And to shift the mood totally, Automobile have a spooky tentative violin solo with restrained support. The recordings aren't always great quality, but the variety here (within some constraints) are a great positive, and there's something for every mood, and nothing lasts forever! - Jeremy Keens
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