The noise community is a funny thing, happily embracing harsh masters and delicate droners and even the occasional pop record. Dino Felipe’s No Fun Demo was a case in point, outlandishly catchy but put out by Carlos Giffoni nevertheless, not that this is bad thing by any means, on the contrary it’s something that should be encouraged. Now neither Shiflet nor Jewell stick out all that far but they don’t exactly fit into noise-shaped brackets all that easily either.
The Shiflet side of this split, tilted Study in Choreography (1-9), is far too carefully assembled and quiet to fit the noise stereotype. Nine miniatures each of which eeks out a considered tone combination, undulating lows paired with ringing highs: little in between. It sounds like a condensed version of Bryan Eubanks sprawling 3CD Desired Climate Works which Shiflet released last year as the final throw of his Gameboy dice. The electronic ‘etudes’ here don’t share Eubanks’ unfaltering stasis: tones are added, scrutinised, modulated ever so gently and stripped away. The word experimental is bandied about rather too much, but these tracks actually feel like experiments, as if Shiflet is hunched over a small pile of electrical test equipment searching for the precise combination of frequencies that will create a difference tone to destructively interfere with his tinnitus. For all the piercing cold of the individual pieces, the cumulative effect of the nine pieces is rather beautiful.
The acoustic counterpart to Shiflet’s electronics is provided on the flip by Ryan Jewell’s The Trees R Just Passing Through. A solo drum improvisation, but not a purely acoustic one it’s dominated by a single sine-tone fired, I imagine into the hull of a drum, around and on top of which Jewell sets to work with bow, cymbal and sundry extended percussion tools. Minimal, delicate and not all that noisy once again. For much of the first half Jewell’s action are barely audible - subdued taps set off fluttering beats in the sine wave, which otherwise draws a straight line through the entire duration. Jewell then sets to work above and below this line gently wobbling a drum skin beneath it and pealing out metallic friction on top.
An excellently paired split release.
Teen action
No comments:
Post a Comment