DAVID GILDEN

[Minus1]

That Slave Labour box is fantastic, so fear not. It is one of the best Macro-releases out there, full of lovely textures, chaos, and that crunch they do so well. I do not know if that is because of Gilden´s involvement, but I would like to think so.

Thanks! My next post here will be on the Macronympha thread, which I hope I can find...

I just (re)finished CD10 of Texas Pillbox. Ah - it was so good. I feel like a cigarette. And I don't even smoke.

Something I've wondered about though: Track 1 of this CD, part of the Lasse Marhaug split, keeps fading / silencing. I wonder if this is Gilden intention, or is the source tape somehow damaged / rotted, and this is the best that can be done. If this is intentional, it seems rather clumsy. The effect is rather jarring. Maybe Gilden wanted this? I wonder.

[Minus1]

Question for those who have managed to listen to the whole box, or at least the majority of it, from someone considering whether its worth picking up. Is the level of quality pretty consistently high throughout? Thinking of the Skin Crime box as a point of reference...which is a pretty high bar, certainly (maybe one disk out of the 20 didn't grab me, and even that one had a few good tracks), but certainly don't want something with 30% amazing material/70% filler.

Worth picking up for sure. First seven or eight discs were excellent, but after that, there were some less hard hitting and more experimental stuff. It became better again towards the end. The sound was consistently rugged and tasty though. Skin Crime box is THE noise box, so I didn't expect this to be directly comparable.

As I type, CD1 of Texas Pillbox screeches (literally!). This is my second runthrough.

On my first runthrough I basically agreed with the above assessment. The middle third caused some beardstroking and headscratching.

I actually thought the same thing on my initial runthrough of the 666VBN 9CD, but on the second runthrough, I fell in love with what was initially baffling.

Perhaps the same will happen here.

***Quotes Himself. Bad form, I know.***

This has indeed become the case. I might even enjoy this middle third more than the other thirds. Sometimes our "expectations" get in the way, and when an Artist takes a left turn, we think of it as...er...a left turn. But these middle CDs, being a bit more experimental, minimalist (at times), spacious, are an essential part of The Whole of Texas Pillbox. They just need more time, perhaps.

(Edit: Well...maybe CD12 needs much more time.)