Reviews:
(I Am Cancer) upon seeing a new matt silcock release in my mailbox i readily prepared myself for some strange and unusual outings, and of course, without fail, that is what i got. but before we talk about what exactly has been digitaly encoded on the simple plain looking cd, let us talk about mr. matt silcock himself. matt has been making music for awhile now that fits somewhere between an unholy racket, and pure unadultered tranquillity. he also helps to run the last visible dog label, and the online magazine blastitude. he also has been a leading member in the band MCMS. the best part, is all this had been taking place for the past few years in non other then lincoln nebraska. lincoln nebraska sucks. well, i shouldnt say that, but its not the first city that comes to mind when thinking of admirable noise music originating. matt now resides in chicago, and i miss his visits dearly. so, the music? if you are a fan of odd noise and fucked song structures cash in your clams. you get it all on this one. the whole thing starts off with a strange and quite organ piece, which then leads you to an apocolypse of sound and confusion. around the middle things take a turn and you get some sweet sax waaa-iii-lll-ing-ing. follow that up with some acoustic guitar meee-aaander-ings. then you get non other then the roofing crew outside which very well could be the roofing crew outside, or it could be someone just crackin' some toys against the wall. on the final track, akira takahashi goes home prepare for some craaa-zzzy guitar skreetches and sketches. either way you toss it, it took the place of the former memo on my answering machine. - Chris Fischer
(Blastitude no. 9)...It's interesting to hold [the 7" by Naoaki Miyamoto] up to the solo CD-R by Blastitude's own contributing partier Matt Silcock, also on Public Eyesore, which has a similar attack in places, but at 13 tracks and nearly 60 minutes, is maybe a little too much of a good thing. Still, if you're in the mood, a good thing it is, and to Silcock's credit, he breaks up the 'noise guitar' stuff with saxophone, acoustic guitar, and some other field recordings (including a woozy not-quite-prog bass/drums jam). A strangely langorous approach is taken too, which helps spread things out, though some of the noise guitar work can get in your face, especially the album closer, an over-the-top quasi-metal number called "Akira Takahashi Goes Home." For the most part, however, the album makes nice background-with-option-for-foreground music in the same way a solo improv record on Incus might.
(Ampersand Etcetera 2002_10) Matt Silcock is a Nebraskan multi-instrumentalist, and this disk gathers a collections of (improvised) solos from 1997 to 2000 in three groups. After 'Chicago daze' opens the album with a lovely slowly evolving accordion drone piece, where you can hear the stops and the notes emerge separately at the end, the first set of guitar solos begins. 'Thigy/thing' is bangy twangy feedback, tending to noise, 'Chicken/crystal' is more electric theatrics, swe eping through feedback and into some restrained echoed strums over a chuggy rhythm. Lighter, almost electronica 'Funk behind your ear' is like fluttering fireflies and 'The teaser' travels from harsh resonant strumming into a picked melody. The section ends with a duet 'Dead bolt', a light guitar over driving drum, swirling. The next section is saxophone, with some additions – and it is generally quite restrained and mellow. 'Beat the devil' combines an electronic pulsing, that becomes quite wild, with the trilling sax; 'Improvisation 7-9' is three pieces, the first two are musical, blowy pieces, while the third is a noisy site recording, with a shaky voice. 'Improvisation 10-12' continues the concrete aspect with another field recording followed by two sweet sax works. The guitar returns for 'Acoustic guitar 17' and '23': the first a tentative collation of picks and scrapes that increases speed, followed by thoughtfully picked notes surrounded by silence, gradually shifting to a strum and then a more rapid picking. Probably what it says it is 'The roofing crew outside' has some muffled noises and very soft guitar, taken over by banging and clattering. Finally, 'Akira takahashi goes home' is something of a showcase of guitar sounds – from mild electronic feedback wobbles, peeping electro to big noise: a fitting conclusion to a varied and very enjoyable album. - Jeremy Keens
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