Two room recordings of gigs at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar in early 2007, both complete with audience mutterings and occasional clanking of furniture. Spiral Joy Band are apparently Mike Gangloff and Mickel Dimmick of Pelt fame though at times there are clearly more than four hands at work here and Amy and Nathan are also credited on the sleeve. The obvious touchstone for the side-long improvised string drone of Phantom Foundries I would be Tony Conrad, and while the playing takes a while to calm down from an agitatedly scratchy opening, it then settles down to satisfy the ears in a similar way. You can almost feel the players concentration focusing on the fluctuating harmonics; flitting about neatly between harmony and dissonance and perhaps most importantly all the intervallic possibilities between the two. Things get really gloopy as some harmonium or organ (?) tones are added, and then, all too soon the recording breaks off. The next track exhibits a more percussive approach reminiscent of Pelt’s Empty Bell Ringing in The Sky album, the organ (or whatever it is) forming the centre, while bells are scraped, clanked and dangled. The playing here is a little busy for my tastes and drifts off centre completely with a period of communal growl and howl at the end.
The second side really loses the plot as far as I’m concerned, filled with warbling whistles and annoying bongo beats, it all sounds like the thoughtless ramblings of a bunch of enthusiastic stoned audience members who have taken the stage after a Vibracathedral Orchestra gig hoping to emulate the band and free their ears. I’m sure some people will love the inept and unsubtle approach here, but as far as I’m concerned the less said about it the better. I never did like hippy drum circles.
sloow tapes
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