NOT NEW RELEASES, BUT THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO MIND
i'm on the abrasive side of the divide between intelligent and music, so i
begin to think "how can i change one's mind." a virus, a stain of
contamination. of course exposure must be surruptitious.
you should check out the OVAL disks if you haven't. listen to them first
if possible because many people find them to be dross, a useless waste
material produced in the wake of true synthesis, industrial genius.
"systemisch" is available on thrill jockey.
oval was the beginning of my theorizing of IDioMatic music so you will
have to indulge me--
THE NON THEORY, ie a funny story. imagine this: we have a tool, say a
hammer. this is the first hammer man has seen. he tries to use it to do
the things that rocks used to do: smash nuts, skulls, whatever. he takes
great joy in this. eventually these activities became vocations and
primordial man is frowning. eventually he thinks: "these things are not
part of the form of the hammer, but byproducts of its form. only by
doing with the hammer what only a hammer can do will i find the joy in
it." however, the hammer has little idiomatic individuallity, so caveman
begins to apply this idea to other artifacts. since he plays the guitar,
as all cavemen do, he exploits it idiomatically. Jimi hendrix was this
caveman with an electric guitar. Derek Bailey on the acoustic. They pull
the strings off the neck, they rap the body with a fist, they stick
plastic between the strings, run a ridiculous wattage through it and light
it on fire with an acetylene torch. this is idiomatic.
ok, oval is the equivalent with a cd player. this is what cd sampling
becomes when it is used idiomatically--the sample is not metaphorical or
metonymic, it is not intended to take you elsewhere by telling you to
"rock the funky beats" or making you think of "Let's Dance" era Bowie by
dropping a Chic bassline. it is the sound of a cd skipping--literally.
synth sounds and smooth washes are created out of intentionally scratched
and manipulated cd's. patterns are drawn on their bottoms with felt tip
pens. the sounds pause and swell, shift by. it's lush with disjunction
as its parasite: only through the parasite does the host become possible.
the thick banquets of synth sound are only possible through the technology
which makes these disjunctions possible--even when you do not hear them
they lurk. oval made me realize the fragility of the CD format, the
record format in a new way: my cd's and records which are scratched
produce fantastic sounds when i stop thinking about what they are supposed
to sound like. does this mean i'm going to mangle all of my cd's and
records...of course not, but i know what beautiful parasites they hide.
rhythm is never asserted (so rarely that is), but it makes itself known
through swells. these words...throbs, swells, waves of sound, oceanic,
unfathomable . . . they are organic, but this is not organic music. it is
the disjecta of synth music . . . it's a boundary medium, a transparent
humor.
the album "diskont 94" is also great. more scrapes, more experiment,
definitely in their ouevre but not a repeat. they never assault your
ears, rather they present that harshness in a defamiliarized way. instead
of exposing you to unmitigated extremes of decible violence, they show its
vulnerability to more than intrigue, but a certain transparent and
quizical reverie.
these are albums unlike any other albums. on record they are dirt cheap.
buy these and listen to three times in a row.
ryan whitehead