I first heard of the activities of this collective back in the winter of 09', I believe it was due to a Sudden Infant tour that was hitting the W. Coast. I was able to immediately connect to the punk attitude/roots that the members seemed to come from (Punk is what really blew the door wide open for music in general for me). I started by checking out ''Invocation of Aural Slaves" & "Psychotic Einzelkind", the later being an extremely accessible album IMHO, I know I heard some others to but can't remember which. I found SI to be really fun to listen to and extremely engaging, and decided to research further, next becoming extremely fascinated by G*Park (and the total lack of information surrounding him and his work), though never being able to track down psychical copies of his releases (due to the fact that ordering from Europe is expensive/broke and moving a lot, and a lot of the material was OOP at the time), I hope to pick up the 23 Five CD that just came out.
Found a copy of the DP Ground Fault release at a record store for 4 bucks shortly after, and gave it a few listens, though it didn't really connect (I think that the way that the ground fault series artwork/packaging didn't give me the full experience I look for in a release). A few months passed and I heard that DP would be performing in NYC so I made my way to ABC No Rio to see him perform, I was absolutely blown away, the level of emotion and intensity easily made it one of the most powerful performances I've ever witnessed...I really regret I wasn't able to make it to see the live performance of the Mutations (? it was manipulated insect field recordings) recordings later that evening. I really like his approach to field recordings as well as the content, I find the sounds to be very psychedelic. And removed from the context of the jungle extremely abstract. The most recent work I heard of his was the Abgrund MP3's on the bandcamp website, I really want to pick up that LP before it becomes impossible to find. I find his work to be constantly moving forward, becoming more and more engaging and powerful as the years go by. He is one artist that I will keep coming back to in the future.
I'm less familiar with the work of R&G, been listening to more bits and pieces since he put up the bandcamp page (
http://rudolfeber.bandcamp.com/ ), and while I find it interesting and definitely intend to investigate further (when my financial situation improves) I don't feel the format does his work justice or translates very well to listening online due to the gaps between the files etc. So I really haven't given the work a proper listen yet, so as not to diminish it by listening to a inferior format.
OHNE was a incredible listen, while I don't think it has the same type of feeling as the members solo efforts, since it relied less on the space in between the sounds and contains more urgency/immediacy like an old punk rock record (can listen to it in the car over and over while driving), you can definetly tell the main efforts of this group were to function as a live touring "band", I think most recordings are live (maybe with the exception of Ohne -1), and the energy of the show transfers really well to the recordings...Really enjoyed what I heard from this band and am looking forward to hearing more.
Most recent think I've had the pleasure of hearing was Arschloch-onna, the collaboration of E.ber, Masonna, and DP. This is a really solid release, 69 tracks clocking in at just 37 minutes. Composed of live/studio recordings completely chopped to pieces and reassembled, provides a really fun listening experience, especially on headphones. A total aural assault switching constantly between the left and right side, I've only listened twice but I know I'll be back for more. Extremely psychedelic audio experience, guaranteed to leave you grinning ear to ear the whole time. I also love the cover art, it's very eye catching. I think it is from the period where E.ber was "playing" freshly caught fish. Great release, I highly recommend this to anyone who really enjoys heavily cut up psychedelic noise.
