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
D E C A Y C A S T Magazine 