Picked up the Gescom MD at good old Bent Crayon today. (JohnC even
mailed me when it got there, isn't that service, guys? Order stuff now!) It
is a very complex release to say the least, and, like Aphex Twin's SAW2, I
think it takes alot more than casual listening to get the full idea of what
it is all about.
The release supposedly has 44(?-don't have the book with me here.)
tracks, but in reality has 88 seperated tracks. The number 44 (more or
less,
forgive me) has to do with the actual groupings of individual MD tracks.
For
example, there are say 3 MD tracks in the "pricks" grouping, and "pricks"
is
considered a "track". Got it? Good.
The most interesting thing I noticed was the ambience and spaciality
(don't use these words at home.) to the whole thing. It is very
encapsulating, meaning you feel like you are in a room and the sounds are
floating around you. (Especially when using eargoggles. [headphones]) So
that part is very neat. It's like a private show in your head, which is a
bizzare experience.
The sounds are very ethereal, unworldly. Repetition, heavy grating,
tings, beats, everything. There are a few tracks that are easily heard to
be
part of another Autechre/Gescom track on an album. Some resemble tracks
that
you have imagined you have heard before, and you wonder just why you
remember it. It is unlike any Ae/Gescom release before, so don't purchase
it
expecting Chastic Slide. 10 second bits, then 3 minute repetitive
beatlines,
every "track" has a disctintive style to it. Putting it on random play
gives
it a much better feel, because of the aformentioned groupings of MD tracks.
Played consecutively, the groupings become dull and similar, and the
individual aspects of each MD track are lost. Random play, however, has an
amazing cohesivness to it, the MD tracks flow into each other and create a
very long (67 minutes) individual track. And it is different each time,
which is very cool.
When listening to the MD, you feel like you are nowhere. It is, aside
from Eno's Ambient 1, the best "in-the-dark" album for me. The kind of
thing
where you put it on, put on your headphones, close your eyes, and travel
around. If that is your thing, I can't reccommend the Gescom MD any more
enthusiastically.
The MD format actually creates creative opportunities rather than
obstructions in this case. A CD release of the same thing would not be the
same. Don't ask me why. Perhaps my CD player has a random track search that
takes entirely too long. Perhaps knowing that this is an entirely new
concept of music (at least to me) makes it a good idea in my mind. Perhaps
it's the all-white packaging motif. (Very austere.)
The Gescom guys have created something that will not be reproduced.
There is something that happens inside your head when you listen to it that
cannot happen when listening to anything else. Not euphoria, not sadness,
not regret, but a physical, tactile experience that I think is amazing. If
you have a MD player, or know someone who does, I personally emplore you to
pick this up. You won't regret it.
Shane Beers