DecaycastREVIEWS : Alessandro Bosetti “Stand Up Comedy ” LP (Weird Ear Records, 2012)

DecaycastREVIEWS : Alessandro
Bosetti “Stand Up Comedy ” LP (Weird Ear Records, 2012)

Alessandro Bosetti is a self reflexive spoken word/conceptual/voice collage artist who offers up a unique release for the newly formed Weird Ear imprint, from Oakland,CA. This LP breaks interesting new ground with it’s playful, conceptual nature using mostly recorded voice, and collage. Bosetti works with gentle subtle textures in the background which bubble to foreground paint by numbers style follow along voice collages. DROP the needle and listen as the words circulate in a nauseous pattern of field recordings, ” interviews”, subtle tape manipulation artifacts, and self-reflexing tape cut ups for “talk radio like ” framework around cut up,conceptual based voice pieces. Sometimes playing like an interview with himself , other times a playful Dadaist / surrealist / Burroughs esque game Like approach is used; where Bossetti seems to cut himself in and out of different conversations, interviews, monologues and the like. “Stand Up Comedy”
References early “cut up method pieces” while still injecting compositional choices and subtle manipulations which break itself from the chains of “randomness” , yet “confusion” and “playfulness” seem to multiply a central theme ; intention becomes muddy as parts seem like happy accidents, where others seem cut and spliced with surgical knife like precision. Stand Up
Comedy is just a spoken word “work” but it’s not – it’s self referential and obvious with it’s cuts and pastes yet background sounds and minimalist “composed sections” bleed through and are given life through the sea of broken chatter ; the sound of the human voice- sometimes interesting, often “creepy” and almost always “idiosyncratic”. in it’s editing approach, which Bosetti makes no effort to hide through amplitude, fidelity and tonal differences between separate recordings, gives it an overall ebb and flow of abstraction of place and time; there is NO STUDIO, Bosetti leaks a conceptual gem, once the listener begins to LOOK and LISTEN at the same time.

And more about the record, the object,
For me the GLUE of this release Weird Ear Records really went for gold straight out of the gate on this album- top notch production from mastering, to design, to Concept, to the final
Presentation – a RARITY These days – especially from
a brand spanking new label. WER001 “Stand Up
Comedy” presents itself in the form a stunning picture disc (WITH MEANING ) the words of the recording are printed on the record- spiraling from the beginning inward – and GET THIS – they actually nearly almost always match up to what’s being played/said on the record at any given time- the needle reads a word ; LITERALLY —- WHAT???!?!? Y E S – a “dictation record” . Once I realized the link between the sound and the image , the concept sort of blew my mind.; A record bleeding self referentiality to the sound that the ear is sucking on – oh, what a joy. Often times the text is interesting, often times it seems “random” bit it never loses it’s form, pacing and style. “Spoken word” is not really my thing, but than again this isn’t really “spoken word”
TOP NOTCH RELEASE – will be looking out for more from
BOSSETTI and WEIRD EAR RECORDS
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Decaycast REVIEWS : FILTH “The Witches’ Pharmacopoeia ” cs (Maniacal Hatred,2012 )

Decaycast REVIEWS : FILTH “The Witches’ Pharmacopoeia ” cs (Maniacal Hatred,2012 )

FILTH is the solo project of Rob B, label master of OUT OF BODY RECORDS, and many musical projects including this jammer. The FILTH cassette starts out with a low modulating analog death Synth pulse; The distant cry of a finicky decaying obsolete machine. High pitched oscillators come in and out of phase chopping the synth to bits and restructuring itself upon its down decay. FILTH is FILTH; distorted, overblown analog electronic pulsewaves, militant beats spring up, punch, slice and fade into the background. The liner notes state no overdubs, and the recording definitely has a live, raw feel without sacrificing creativity or fidelity- true analog grit electronic, about halfway through the first side the tempo picks up and higher pitched choked growls emerge from the cacophonous mix, taking the lead and then succumbing to more synth square wave Druid hum stabs of a war drum. FILTH mixes dark industrial, synth and even power electronic aesthetics in this nasty little number.

The B side opens up with a crawling ascending tone and a beat drops STRAIGHT INTO HELL. The second side offers similar tones, pulses, and dark oscillations of blended, raw industrial chaos; all
whilst retaining an overall dynamic tension and intensity which raises this album to above average without a doubt for the style. Blending beat heavy sections with delayed vocal howels and walls of controlled feedback, FILTH creates balanced and intense sounds, with an ear for composition within the chaotic sound. This recording live to tape l yet doesn’t appear improvised in any way , tight, concise and thought out dark electronic mayhem, check out the project and the label MANIACAL HATRED,

written by: malo

DecaycastREVIEWS: +DOG+ “The Family Music Book, Volume 1 (Love Earth Music, 2013)

DecaycastREVIEWS: +DOG+ “The Family Music Book, Volume 1 (Love Earth Music, 2013)

The Family Music Book , Volume 1, the latest offering of a
Live album by the longstanding harsh noise project +DOG+ headed by southern california’s Steve Davis and aided and abated by an almost endless list of Collaborators who have joined the ranks of +DOG+. The first track is a live recording of a show I was actually at from The Lab, in San francisco, CA, which was pleasing to see. +DOG+ rips roaring mechanical robots of destruction harsh noise – in the purest form
- the fidelity of this recording is good, but it doesn’t quite do the live performance justice; to no fault of +DOG+ obviously, they are just a really intense live act, and the visceral intensity of the set in the flesh was near impossible to capture in any format- a ultra subjective digression for sure, but see these guys LIVE is the point! This album functions as A compilation of live sets up and down the coast demonstrating a wide array or +DOG+ sonic amalgamation pf aesthetics and cast members- including, but not limited to, broken blasts, pummeling industrial materials, piezo feedback noise, wall, and at times. Power electronics with manic and thwarting screamed, over -modulated vocal hymns, belching shaking synth slams, radio static scanning, unknown samples to boot and churning walls of ???feedback which blend the storm of chaos that is +DOG+ together.

Live “noise” albums can be a tricky thing, like any live album actually, but somehow +DOG+ pulls it off with this one – the variance in sounds, duration, and recording quality give a nice mix of what +DOG+ is capable of at any given performance, based on the mood, concept, and personnel of the event. Often blazing with screeching oscillating interpolating distortion and caucophanous rage, and sometimes just the static of an AM radio bleeds through, but no matter what happens the listener is caught with surprise and the emotional, political and poetic fury that is +DOG+. Look for this CD directly from the label,
LOVE EARTH MUSIC a longstanding label which does it right, support this label.

written by: Malo

DecaycastREVIEWS: COLLAPSED ARC “Tension And Tenure” (ASR, 2013)

Collapsed Arc is another one of the many projects of Cleveland multitalent David Russell Snake. This tour only tape exemplifies the artists highly crafted noise loops, made from
Hand persuasion, feedback, white noise plasma and undulating modulations fuzz. At times sounding like industrialized hip hop instrumentals (especially the first minute which jumps out of the gate with a sinister distorted head nod) and then going into subtly modulated feedback loops of noise and microphone / piezo feedback- high frequency inner ear trauma for the stunted listener. Beautiful walls of distorted mini wind instruments rip a skin mask from your worried face and wrap it around and around until it squeezes new frequency out of dense breath. Often mechanical
Sounding and often organic- Thw noise loops on this cassette are constantly shifting in their origin and purpose but never stray conceptually or sonically away from an acutely precise presentation and structure. The peaking high frequency squeaking chaos crescendos do an almost fever pitch and then a beat drops in- even if just a bass hit – and the entire orientation is restructured. these have a raw but rehearsed feel, NOT overworked, yet at the same time, not half assed by any stretch, the pitch, duration, timbre, sequencing and overall structure all ebb and flow with an apparent natural effortlessness.

The second half of the A side brings in more minimal
Breakdowns that escalate into controlled noise/beat/loop chaotic conundrums.

The second side offers more of the same fine crafted dense persuasive percussive tight loops- blending drum sounds, percussive elements and sharply carved noise and feedback blasts, ebbing and swelling yet always maintaining a dynamic intensity and consciousness.
The sound sources are seemingly unknown- I thought I hear voices? But it might be not so – modulated reeds, winds, oscillators, crunched hand percussion and oscillators modulate through organized sonic storms of chopped rhythms- Collapsed Arc work has always been loop based, but these take the project to a new level, skillfully and carefully composed and executed warbling tones of hell-
Beautiful artwork as always from
The A Sound Design Recordings inprint. COLLAPSED ARC makes a RARE bay area appearance this Thursday, April 25th @ Life Changing ministries in oakland, CA . this is also the release party for the cassette and can only be obtained at the show – so DON’T MISS OUT.

RATSKIN EXPLASTICAL #32
COLLAPSED ARC (Hanson / ASR / Ratskin )

/DILATEDEARS (Ratskin /Placenta)

“RUST WORSHIP (Obsolete Units)

HAHA LA (sound/performance art)

Coagulator & Head-boggle DJ

8:30 pm $5
Life Changing ministries
8th st @ Peralta
Lower bottoms, west Oakland

DecaycastREVIEWS : FORREST FRIENDS “40 Winks Of Dyre” cs (Cryptic Carousel , 2013)

DecaycastREVIEWS : FORREST FRIENDS “40 Winks Of Dyre” cs (Cryptic Carousel , 2013)

Forrest Friends crafts together fever dream psychedelia “toy” noise/musique concrete through various instruments which of many can e categorized as broken toys / circuit bent kids amusement items and the like. Forrest Friends might be the sound of Dragging a toy piano through the dirt with a honkey tonk drumset attached to the tail with a bass string. The mood of this cassette is both over and under the eyes of the listener. BRIGHT symbols shutter dark sounds, low fi off kilter guitar strums, choppy and sparse percussive rhythms are made with the appropriated entropy of dying electronic circuits. This tape claws at the ear slowl, losing TE listener in a jungle of low fidelity haze and then grabbing consciousness and pulling the listener back into a different beach of sound. A rope hangs another fuzzed out string pluck – springs another sound decaying reverb of ESP powers coming to life in a blown capacitor!

The sounds of this tape bounce off of similar species – - this state park issued sludge that weeps and squeaks through horns, guitars, keyboards, synthesizers gently walking and peeking in a shuddering tone for ones friends. A box of broken toys are jarring on each other feedback pulsing to another ping from one pang to the next guitar string zing- chumps a broken cymbal hit Forrest Friends is an amalgamation of psychedelic rock throwing up on itself into dense rain forrests of prickling picking broken guitars. Distant squeals undulate each other via circuit bent items from the trash given new life through an orchestration of chaotic pains in a keyboard turning into a jelly doughnut of burping oscillations captured live. Pink Floyd being flushed down the toilet in the wrong direction recorded on a CB radio from 1940 is a good starting point for this tape. If you want the highest fidelity junky tickerings this tape might not be you, but if textured low fi slow churning chaotic tinkering with the dead stuff in aisle 3 of Toys R us is your thing, so is this tape. Nice artwork and foldout special
Cut insert with sexy green shells! Catch them LIVE in Oakland, CA at LCM Thursday, March 28th as part of the Ratskin Explastical series. Here’s the poster …

http://crypticcarousel.com/forrestfriends.html

Decaycast REVIEWS : A WHITE HUNTER “Singles Tape #1)

Decaycast REVIEWS : A WHITE HUNTER “Singles Tape #1)

 

A White Hunter is a bay area based math rock / noise / free jazz / inprov / information overload wrapped tight in a stretched mechanical like percussive skin . The tape begins with subtle plucking and clucking of guitars and rimshots – subtle decay traila in the backgrouns visualize almost by chance mouth  sounds,  rattling percussion,  dropped guitars  

, a quiet ring  intro gives birth to a clicking, pulsing cracked  metronome of chaos.  instant plunge into middle range guitar confusion oscillators and drums that sound like they shift between analog and programmed.  A White Hunter crafts  an interesting and unique mix noisy obliteration of inverted power cord arpeggiated manuscripts of sort of free  heap mathish rock and noise . The B side begins with a more positive sounding guitar melody humming strumming lacking walls of echoed out vocals plan with guitars to bring forth spasmodic cacophonous strumming sleeping in through the background blown out fuzzed out walls of reverb give birth  to a maddening percussive onslaught of paranoia. At times somewhat resembling  like a spacemen three  outtakes demo played backwards through distortion pedal and then you turn the CD off it give burst to subtle cassette fidelity  riff environment. percussion pushing and pulling with guitars voice in Both harmony and  opposition to create a subtle yet confusing mix of math rock oriented noise blasts, arpeggiated guitars playing inside and outside of each other at the same time.  a white hunter crafts pseudo-improv next of Hard happy sounding rock songs being flushed down the toilet in the wrong ? Direction.  blast beats give birth  the recording fidelity does the band justice,  but not too much justice, as overproduced math math rock is like bad bowel movement waiting to exit and give birth to natural sounds and reverberations the production on this album  is perfect;  just enough clarity to leave you wondering what the hell is going on but not so distorted that you can’t make out instruments. This cassette  intends in the confusion and disorientation of the listener and the players also . The percussion really leads the recording forward playing off arpeggiated guitars which bleed and wellp  more percussion that blown out calms and rattling symbols gel together ; a white hunter seamlessly shifts between math/noise rock belting out walls of distortion and slipping back into near operatic light cord swell for a stripped-down lineup and simple recording techniques this tape is above average for the style definitely needs to be seen live to get the full effect

 

A WHITE HUNTER

 

Written by : Malo

decaYREVIEWS : LOVE KATY “Cinematic & Dramatic” (Forever Escaping Boredom Records”

decayREVIEWS : LOVE KATY “Cinematic & Dramatic” (Forever Escaping Boredom Records”

LOVE KATY Cassette arrives and I am
Rather intrigued at the cover image and the non labelled generic cAssette shell – could be harsh noise – or ANYTHING really – opens up with a sample of a “shallow” “actress” ? women (maybe famous and I am
Missing it ??!) blabbing existential crisis bought at the store – Didn’t grace of the depressed psychosis holy dark unchanging unnerving militant walls love Katie Paine a cinematic nightmare of endless looping self-doubt a broken tea kettle off in the distance burns and boils; a subtle Wall Modulation; ie this woman on the covers personal Hell- over and inside itself – the sound of self doubt- an unchanging static wall – psychosis on and on and on; she doesn’t want a relationship just a career. A deep fall to the center of the earth with a failing actress exposes the underbelly of a corrupt and flawed facile of entertainment . Hope is being drained rapidly .

beautiful , minimal , relevant Cover art Which really emphasized a theme along with the titles and colored the wall in a nice way – only gripe (for what it is – and I am “particular” about “noise wall” –?????? ) is the tape was dubbed a bit on the quiet side – but this allows it to dip in and out of the categorization of “background noise” , which seems somewhat inseparable
From the conceptual framework and ethos of harsh noise wall and the VOID. Not the most interesting noise wall ever but then again – does it seek to entertain , alienate , or crush ?

order the  tape here….

http://foreverescapingboredom.com/main.htm

Written by : Malo