https://screamandwrithe.comhttps://absurdexposition.bandcamp.com
AE70: BARSTOOL MOUNTAIN - III CD50 minutes. 4-panel digipak.
Mastered by Pentti Dassum.
"Texture. A nice word, wouldn't you say, settling into the audible dis-course with whiffs of sophistication, complexity, depth. The Oxford English Dictionary gives us
the constitution, structure, or substance of anything with regard to its constituents or formative elements. Merriam-Webster offers
the disposition or manner of union of the particles of a body or substance. And here, courtesy
Barstool Mountain,
III, a deep-dive into fractured reservoirs of textural dis-course, whiffs of smudged sophistication, crusted complexity, substance-
oomph! - over style.
Nine months on from the maiden
'Stool drop, the aims of Mattias Gustafsson's
Altar of Flies alter-ego swim into red-rimmed, bleary-eyed focus: less the painstakingly plotted array of elliptical rabbit holes, more the going full brute on the ass. Still as ever moored to that measured sense of deliberation and patience, but distilled to the chase, not so much hurried as harried, frazzled, grizzled, hair askew and sticking, chunks ripping off chunks galore, the dread and thrill of discovery fueling fresh flush-faced lurch through weathered beaten fabrics, brute-conditioned deliberations teasing jeweled moldering gristle-chunks from crusted rippling crunch-pockets.
Textures, in other words. Thick chunky crunch-bludgeon. Gloomy deep-sunk, acoustic, cave-clunk. Char-burnt ripped-to-shit-electro bleed-weepage. Machine-on-the-fritz skewering wheedle-mouthed scree-shriekage. Amplified hum-drizzle working smoked out murk-corridor. Moldering grinding-down-the-will dirge-crumble.
Textures. A chunks-inducing smorgasbord's worth. The depth of complexity and sophistication turning on the inclination to follow a fractured dis-course of cracks rendering fissures rendering cracks rendering...well. Lots of rabbit holes to be sure, fractured reservoirs of textural perception flooding with spirals of self-exploded gristle-churn, high pressured scrunch particles erupting and ripping in amongst the other, rippling crunch vectors yielding new depths to plunder, new terrains to explode, inverted mountains going full brute on the ass. So yes, agreed, possibly no less the experience in simply sitting back to revel in brute bludgeoning raw. Full disclosure, I like the style." - (Soddy)
AE72: TOANCHE DWELLING - Hyleidos CSC44. Edition of 50 clear tapes pro-dubbed with paper labels, JP1 covers in standard cases, insert.
Memory process. Cue the sound--but it's in another room. It's not even in the house. It's coming from another place and time. Or, rather, the sound is the line casting backwards through the murky, muffled, hazy, distorted, fractured, cracked, broken, stop-and-go motions of personal history. It's the line that correlates a human product and its environment. A process. A rumination. An exploration of the depths, recesses, corners, nooks, crannies, attics, basements, empty lots, barren fields and open spaces of formative pasts.
Adapted from the artist's context: It's the loss and change of familiar spaces, places, people, moments in time. The reclamation. Abandoned and disused zones, pareidolia (aural, visual), inexplicable encounters and circumstances.
AE56: HERMIT / chik white CS C22. Edition of 50 pro-dubbed white tapes with paper labels.
Housed in U-cards and tied with string.
Artwork by Orest3s.
A unique pairing of two distinct vocal-noise approaches from opposite coasts of Canada.
From Vancouver Island: Eric Boros, active as Hermit since the mid-90s, offers up a vocal chaos-splay with additional noise contributions from Mildred Hurtful. It's pure classic Hermit, through and through.
From Nova Scotia: Darcy Spidle continues experimenting with the jaw harp via the chik white [sic] project. A stripped-down, natural, "man and his instrument" approach--no noise or other electronic supplements, yet still with moments of close-up, high-gain,
blow-outs, and perfectly suited to be residing opposite Boros' naturally un-natural vocalizations.
AE63: KNURL - Objective Constraint CSC90. Initial edition of 50 recycled chrome tapes dubbed in real time.
Black sandpaper covers housed in standard (recycled) cases with title strip on spine.
Program repeats on both sides.
When Alan Bloor first shared this material with me I was floored by it. This is some of the best Knurl material from those early years. Why was it never released? No reason other than the fact that it simply never happened--until now.
All tracks were produced and remastered from an unreleased recording, Feb. 1996.
https://screamandwrithe.comhttps://absurdexposition.bandcamp.com
