Hear is my second V/Vm review for you all. "Machine Components" is a
quadruple 7" release of incomplete music, meaning that you are supposed to
combine & manipulate the tracks into new music. Maybe I'm not the best
person to review this since I'm not so excited by that concept, but I'll
try to be fair. I do still mostly really like this release. I just don't
get so excited by buying records that are designed to be tools for creating
the real music, firstly because I only have one turntable with no pitch
control, & secondly because I don't need other people to make records for
me to make music with. I do it anyway, & it'll be the music that I want to
make. When I get records, I want to hear what other folks have made.
Anyway, this set still has lots of really great stuff that can even be
listened to & loved alone as it is, I think. There are a few really
repetetive tracks that are the ones more in need of being "built into
machines," but there's still a good 30 or 40 minutes of magnificent, dense
V/Vm musical murk. There are a good lot of different things going on here,
but heavy noise is present on almost every track, although different kinds
of noise all throughout. The noise element is important to keep in mind if
you're considering getting these since so many people are severely turned
off by noisiness, but if you are not, the V/Vm people can accomplish really
astounding things with it in really astounding ways that you may want to
listen to.
Marc Poirier