In Place of Dreary Patterns

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Archive for category Noise

Ultra United - (2002) Ultra Audience (****)

Jul 5

Posted by Mr. Landry in 4 stars, Ambient, Dark Ambient, Electronic Music, Noise, Reviews | No Comments

ultra-united-ultra-audience

Ultra Audience is the sole document of ambient / noise group Ultra United, and thus evidently quite the labor of love.  There is a lot of passion in these 9 tracks, each which is accompanied by a  picture or short poem in the beautiful, colorful booklet, raising the question of whether the album is meant to follow some kind of vague, abstract concept.  The poems are often in stilted, cliched rhymes, but they lend a very personal air to the music and overall the packaging is undoubtedly marvellous.  I spotted a used copy in a local record store, having never heard of this group or album, instantly gravitated towards it and ended up buying it.  For something by a group so obscure and likely made on a low budget, it sure looks great.

Many groups that blend the genres of ambient and noise are jam bands of sorts, letting abrasive textures take over their music when it suits the flow of the improvisation.  This is where “Ultra Audience” differs…  it is obviously solitary, composed music, and is almost totally focused on textures of sound as expressors of emotions.  Which movements on the album should employ volume and harshness has been carefully chosen.  Accompanied by the poetry inside the booklet the message, the album seems to say, “This is how I have felt during my life.  Listen, and if it’s unpleasant…  Now you know how it was for me”.  So much ambient music focuses on the cosmic, but this musician is not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve.  The poems reference the happenings of a life we have no hope of further access to, but leave the music with this general sense of significance in the context of a life.  The unfortunate side effect is a certain angsty cheesiness in the vein of the woman sexily exhaling cigarette smoke on the cover, but this can be mostly avoided if you put the booklet down.

Each track is its own notably different textural realm, separated from the others by at least 10 seconds of silence. Some of the noise tracks simply rest in a suspended state, (”From Consciousness to Nowhere” and “The Volunteer”, accompanied in the booklet with the phrase ‘life in a locked groove’) mimicing the feeling of being stuck in a depressive rut.  These are the album at its most unpleasant.  One can feel they endure the noise, a humourless grey sheet that brings back every dismal rainy day, for a reason.  This is not a nihilistic album, as is obvious in the very dramatic synth pieces (similar in style to Vidna Obmana, vintage Steve Roach or even some old Skinny Puppy instrumentals), like “The Quiet Riot” and “Sunset”.  These tracks have wonderful, sensitive melodies, but are few and far between on this album.  “Physical Initiation”, with its abrupt lurch into static life, is a well placed opening gesture.  “Scrape the Sky” contains aggressive analog synth squalls that are like a storm.  Only “The Incendiary Lover”, led by a needlessly distorted synth line that makes the track sound incredibly cheap and sequenced, really gets any criticism from me.

The noise textures are not volatile bursts of furious feedback, rather they are cold digital distortion created through DSP.  They have less depth than analog noise often does, and on their own, the sounds are rather uninteresting, but by the end of each of the rather lengthy tracks they are densely intertwined in such a way as to be mesmerizing to me, although they may still be unlistenable to some people.  I feel the dullness of the textures reflects the stagnation of desensitization and apathy.  As Maurizio Bianchi said, sound “to work on complete realising of the modern decadence”.  The highlight of the album for me is the absolutely transcendent closer “Snow Muzak” which after beginning with 4 minutes of silence, uses its digital cleanliness to evoke an unnaturally simple, glistening surreal dimension not too far removed from the work of Gas or Oval.

“Ultra Audience” is a solid album that succeeds in bringing the genre of ambient to a more personal, immediate and narrative place, as well as integrating it with elements of digital noise.  It had to grow on me, as it’s very slow moving music.  Fans of minimal ambient music should pick this up if they see a copy.  4 stars.

Z’EV - (2009) Sum Things (***)

Jun 17

Posted by Mr. Landry in 3 stars, Ambient, Avant Garde, Dark Ambient, Electronic Music, Noise, Reviews | No Comments

zev-sum-things

Z’EV has always been a musician who has had my respect (he is completely uncompromising), but whose music I could not truly enjoy.  His earlier percussive works, such as “Heads & Tales”, which often contained vocal samples, are more enjoyable with their concise compositions, discernable direction and polyrhythmic energy, but for the most part, his albums are such austere, unfeeling exercises; perhaps he is focused more on the process by which his works are created than the resulting sound, as are many other avant garde artists whose work sounds similarly lacking in human warmth or logic patterns, such as Ryoji Ikeda or Richard Chartier… or perhaps with his works he intends to take us on a journey to a mental space so distant that most get inevitably lost along the way, unable to emotionally relate or comprehend where the ‘trip’ was supposed to lead.

“Sum Things”, six tracks of ringing, beatless sound (described on the spine as “a possible form for cold dark matter”) is no different, showcasing many of the aspects which make him unlistenable.  As often with Z’EV, every track seems to be a separate product of the same experimental method, making for an extremely consistent sound throughout the record.  In this case, the primary and only sound on the album is a grainy, harsh metallic resonance, which rather than being ambient and pure is mulched up with unpleasant artifacts caused by performing excessive time stretching and compression on a sample.  Only rarely does it approach something I would call ‘textural beauty’, something I’ve found in even the most unapproachable avant garde quite often.   Mostly it rings obnoxiously in a muddy morass of high frequencies.

Though the music ends up sounding similar to ambient music in some ways, and does drone on, I have not been able to interpret the sound as representing a space, something ambient music generally does.  There is only the haziest ‘landscape’ hidden in the sound here.  It does not ‘reverberate’ as ambient music should… reverberation being the way the human ear determines the size and shape of the space in which sound occurs.  The dull cacophony of this album seems random at first, and repeated listenings do nothing to make any kind of organization apparent.  There are louder and softer sections.  The last track is almost on the level of noise.  But it seems to mean little.

Dark ambient, despite its name, is not always a masochistic genre of music to partake in.  Many artists known for their fear inducing music are, for the initiated, pleasant to listen to in many ways.  Lustmord’s music has a sense of hugeness and cosmic unity about it, whereas Lull specializes in a sort of cathartic, escapist hypnotism and sonic impressionism.  Many an artist’s work could be called ‘badass’, and is thus enjoyable as subtle, slightly campy apocalyptic daydreaming rather than coming across as actually disturbing.  All seem driven by a human sense of aesthetics.  Even Aube’s work, nearly comparable to Z’EV’s in inaccessibility, has a certain spatial order and rhythm.

The universe of “Sum Things”, on the other hand seemed to be governed by a being with no soul, no desire.  It is abrasive without ever really being loud, breaking inhibitions or exposing a shred of aggression.  Nor does it express the simplicity and clarity of any kind of zen or meditation state.  The only keys we get into the bizarre world of “Sum Things” are the photos contained in the album packaging.  Eroded, precarious natural pillars of rock of a grey color the album does seem to reflect.  Even Steven Stapleton’s “Thunder Perfect Mind”, which came across as completely unsympathetic towards human life, was understandable in its sheer hostility.  As far as I can tell,there is no force of will present in this music.  The structures of the pieces would lead me to believe that they were caused by glitches or pure mathematics (just look at the track titles), and not a thoughtful process of composition.

So, after giving Z’EV another try I must concede he remains sonically interesting to me, but completely unlistenable.  Perhaps if he chose the best of six tracks here and including it on an album with other, completely different experiments, it would be possible for me to listen to all the way through in one sitting.  I give “Sum Things” it 3 stars on the basis of feeling like there is still something I’m not getting here.  Perhaps this is generous, but I admire those who are unafraid to really push the boundaries.  This is only for the most adventurous, and even they may be disappointed.

Merzbow - (2008) Protean World (****)

Sep 23

Posted by Mr. Landry in 4 stars, Electronic Music, Noise, Reviews | No Comments

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As usual with Merzbow albums, “Protean World” is about energy and texture.  This recent release is ferocious, free form, and seriously loud.  Most of those aspects are present in a typical Merzbow release, but what sets apart “Protean World” is its monotony, the complete lack of change or dynamics.  It’s one massive, cleansing blast.  It’s overwhelmingly dense and thick; it’s difficult to tell the layers apart or even the number of layers present.  The layers don’t even really seem intended to mesh or sync up, exactly.  This album is actually a lot more layered, chaotic and full of sound than even a lot of the classic Merzbow albums that are known for being relentless and harsh, such as Pulse Demon.  It might be the most relentless album I’ve ever heard from him.  It completely surrounds you, like a howling wind.

“Protean World” abandons rhythm more totally than any album I’ve heard of his, despite being the first Merzbow album I’ve heard to include live drumming (although I know he’s done a lot of experimenting with that on other recent releases as well).  In the past, there was usually at least some kind of rhythmic feedback loop or shakey pulse present in the mix.

Most of these comments apply primarily to Side 1, as Side 2 has a little more dynamic range and a few more rhythmic elements, although it still completely retains the overwhelmingly dense, layered feeling of Side 1.  Compositionally, I prefer Side 2, but for a screaming, enveloping catharsis, it’s hard to beat Side 1.  Few, if any, musicians do this as well as Masami Akita.

“Protean World” is definitely not going to convince any detractor of noise that Merzbow is ‘music’.  In fact, even seasoned Merzbow fans may be hard pressed to find the musicality in these cacophonous 35 minutes.  Basically, whether you’ll enjoy this album depends on what you look for in music, and what you look for in a Merzbow album.  There is some serious intensity here.  It can be easily interpreted as angry and violent, but in the end it’s just the sound of power, pure energy.  If you’re in a bad mood and catharsis is what you want, this will do you just fine.  It has less of that meditative quality that even Merzbow’s harshest material has often had, but I still don’t feel like the energy of the album is truly negative or dark.

I do wonder about the aesthetic pleasing but possibly ominous splintered wood in the album art.  If I had to analyze it, I’d say it looks like a building that’s been destroyed by a natural disaster like a tornado or a hurricane.  The idea of the subservience of civilization and man-made things to something so powerful as extreme weather seems a fitting theme for an album such as this.

In conclusion, this is an interesting Merzbow album that I enjoy listening to.  It’s not essential, and it’s not one of his best, but then again it’s so specialized towards a certain idea that it’s destined to be one of those albums that’s meant for certain occasions only.  4 stars.

Merzbow - (1998) Vibractance (*****)

Jul 3

Posted by Mr. Landry in 5 stars, Electronic Music, Noise, Reviews | No Comments

Merzbow - Vibractance

“Vibractance” is the kind of album that’s only known by those who are already die hard fans of Merzbow, and in this case, that’s really a shame, as in some ways, it’s some of his most accessible and conventionally musical work ever, despite also being absurdly harsh at times (the first two tracks) due to its focus on higher frequencies.

I’ve never even seen a copy of this album for sale, whether in person or on websites like Musicstack and Ebay.  It’s certainly one of Merzbow’s rarest releases out of his 200+, yet its beautiful gold, pixellated cover art, as well as the album name and track titles like “Vibrating Sand”, got my attention.  Not only has Masami Akita made great album packaging a tradition, but the sound of the accompanying albums always seems to match the art he chooses.

1998 was a great year for Merzbow releases, bringing us the instantly standout “1930″, as well as other solid, adventurous releases such as “Aqua Necromancer”, but “Vibractance” stands out from them all.  Rather than being a wild, freewheeling improvisation that recalls a free jazz solo played on noise generators, “Vibractance” is an album length drone, and seemingly quite concerned with structure, and energy build up and release, to the point where any music listener would be hard pressed to deny the thought put into it.   Seeing as this is Merzbow, it’s also quite violent and aggressive at times, qualities rarely combined with drone, which usually manifests as more meditative, but you can still find genuinely pretty sounds here in abundance.  The entire first 5 minutes of the album are very quiet…  we haven’t heard dynamics like this on a Merzbow release since the early 90’s and “Rainbow Electronics”.

The drone that establishes itself is a warm, thick, buzzing, golden sound, perfectly doing justice to the name “Vibrating Sand”.  Like so many others, Akita’s been hypnotized by the sound of pure waveforms, and this is a triangle wave as beautiful as they come.

Before long,  the listener is engulfed in the harshness and shrieking distortion Merzbow is known for, yet the unique character and structure of the album is not lost.  Even when that familiar shrieking wall of high frequencies begins to dominate the mix, Akita holds back.  The filters don’t rapidly squeal and sweep up and down through various different textures in that typical Merzbow way, rather they hang constant, content to change slowly.  It seems as if Akita is manipulating only a pair of sound sources, such is the purity of tone maintained throughout.  And so, despite the presence of usual Merzbow timbres, it continues to feel like a drone.  Soon, expansive, psychedelic reverb is added, and it becomes a truly ambient experience.

The second track, “Sonar”, picks up where the first left off but soon prevents the album from really being accessible, despite its more obviously musical structure.  The drone remains present, but about 2/3 through, a whining, powerful high frequency punches through the mix and dominates all else.  There were high frequencies in the first track as well… and these are even worse.  In this case, the “pure” nature of the tone makes it all the more unbearable, as there is nothing to distract from the sheer obnoxiousness of the sound.  I dare anyone to withstand this part at the same volume they’d play other albums…  This is one of the harshest moments ever found on a Merzbow album, and that is saying a LOT.  Compositionally, it works quite well, but it’s hard to take.

The third track “Flame” is a more bassy sound, an overloaded, fuzzy low-end drone that remains mostly constant for its 5 minute running time.  It’s an enjoyable sound, not particularly harsh, but it’s the shortest and least significant track on the album.

The closer, “Wind / Reactance” is one of my favorite Merzbow songs.  Again, it begins from a drone, similar to the beginning track, but reveals itself later as being even more restrained.  Gorgeous, percolating synth blips establish an overwhelming tension that never quite releases, and the album ends on the same drone it began with.

In conclusion, this is Merzbow making an attempt at an ambient drone sort of album, and it ends up being quite original, considering this style of aggressive, full volume drone has rarely been explored outside of say, Coil’s “Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil”, which this album predates by several years.  Its harshness leads me to place it in the noise category, but its very musical structure makes it a good starting place for an aspiring Merzbow fans.  It make convince some naysayers of his talent.

5 stars for an intense and powerful experience.