Raglani - Classically Sprained [arbor]

In spite of several recommendations from trusted opinions this is the first release by Joe Raglani that I’ve bought. Possibly it was the various mentions of voice, his singing on the releases that put me off. But one of the best things about cassette releases is you don’t need to invest in a limited edition vinyl-only release to test run an artist you’re intrigued about but not convinced by. (Have you never heard of downloads? I hear you cry).

I’m hard pushed to find illuminating comparisons for the music on this release, it is lazy, not even very fitting to compare Raglani with Emeralds but the one thing to be gained from doing this is to note that there is a density on this tape, an accretion layer upon layer of material generating as much sound as many a trio would do from a single pair of hands and without losing the cohesion. The first ten minutes of side A is pure synthesizer work-out, sounding much more like a lost early Cluster track than any contemporary players I can call to mind. Beginning with a gentle fizz, repeated fragments of melody shift in and out focus atop a tidal growl they float momentarily on the surface as the undercurrent grows, drags them under and they struggle up for air, becoming more frenetic and choppy as the side progresses, eventually washing us up on a sunny beach where an impromptu ensemble plays us out with slipping loops of melodica, sitar, bells and guitar.

Side B picks up with the same troop in more mournful mood, joined by Raglani’s echo-laden voice and catapulted synth tones descending overhead. My misgivings about his singing were misplaced. Here, forming the melodic centre of the piece for five-odd minutes it sits beautifully among the other sounds. Winding down into the most spacious part of the tape, we are left with drawn-out flickering fuzz and occasional plucked guitar all dissipating into a field recorded summer park scene of feet-crunched leaves, before quickly picking up into a maelstrom of synth gurglings and melodica. Although Joe Raglani tends to be associated with noise labels, that would seem to be less an apt description of his music that a sign that the noise clique is becoming increasingly dispersed across a much wider range of fringe music than has previously been the case, something to be applauded. I’d think.

Once again sold out at source, but available, for the time being, here or here.

Work/Death - Ruptural Strictures [arbor]

Two shortish pieces for piano (and electronics) on this tape from Scott Reber. Both of which are not really ‘noise’ as such. Even at their densest there’s a distinct lack of overload, an attention to dynamics and structure that makes it sound more like the work of contemporary a contemporary improvisor/composer than an out-and-out noisician. Side A is played inside the piano, Side B on the keys (with the assistance of Meagan Grundberg, Sakiko Mori and Geoff Mullen), both are treated in some sort of cumulative wash of processing. The perfect outline of clouds from below leaves the sustain pedal firmly down throughout, then adding seemingly interminable electronic decays to the natural reverberations of the piano. The gestural moves here wouldn’t sound out of place in a modernist prepared piano composition, at times even echoing David Tudor’s handling of the instrument’s guts. The electronic treatments Reber uses rarely transform these source actions: fingers sweep across whole sections of the piano, objects clatter against them and the occasional frame tap and struck key; but they do go to work after the fact. Though the use of delay is by no means a whitewash echoes do seem to return bounced off a distant wall and each new sound adding overtones to a low morass that wells up over the duration gathering into a dark and grainy cloud by the close.

By the end of May the Universe provide or not we are as close to noise territory as the tape gets, and a far cry from the beginning of the piece. A softly muttered “ok” is cut short at the start, flagging up the ‘liveness’ of this take for multiple pianos (or mutiple hands), there follows a short and fairly harmonious section of semi-random notes, like the most tonal possible outcome of two Cage number pieces being played simultaneously. As the brooding electronics (all square and sawtooth waved this time) begin to respond the notes become more interrupted: muted by a meddling hand on strings, only half played; and far more scattershot, quickly discarding their tonality. The electronic growl intensifies, all distorted snarling gradually overriding the attacks of the piano, though never obliterating it. A really excellent tape.

I have now got six tapes from Scott’s own Three Songs of Lenin imprint which I intend to write up here at some point. Though I’m kind of wishing I had left this one until last, as I don’t really feel any of them are likely to better it.

Sold out from arbor but a few stray copies left here.