Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on September 08, 2017, 03:32:21 PM
Amusingly, this tape is "recycled tape": Dubbed over Richard Ramirez' CONTROLLED FILTER tape, haha.. As Putkonen-Laurila assault is shorter than c-60, there was still other side remaining of ramirez noise.
Huh, well now I don't feel quite as guilty for taping my own shit onto tapes I can't sell/trade/etc. Odd when folks don't even bother to erase the entirety of whatever they taped over first...
Anyway, "Lost Gems of Finnish Noise" podcast would be great.
Dog Lady Island "Malone" CS (Mistake By The Lake) Hmm, sounds an awful lot like unused material from the much better, more "realized" "Dolor Aria" CS on Collino's own Alien Passengers label. In fact, Mike would have to personally correct me for me to believe otherwise – this tape is 26 minutes of tape-treated piano, harp, and singing bowl (??) sounds warbling and decaying. Not bad, but too minimal for how directionless/meandering the sounds themselves, as well as the organization are/is. Even slightly more accompaniment would've made this tape something more than how it ended up – there's been some talk of M.B. releasing 1980s source sound as a "new release" lately...here I suspect this is indeed the case. Check out the aforementioned "Dolor Aria" instead. Collino is too talented to do something this simple, so what gives?
Flysch "For Opposition" 2xCS (self-released) First track; some awkward choices of field recordings (obvious carpentry sound bringing up images of guys drinking beer, etc) and inclusion of fluttery ambient key-type sounds that just never jive well with me, but I like this sound collage/field recording stuff nonetheless. Has a sort of eerie atmosphere to it, as if intended for a score or incidental soundtrack.
Things seem to kick into gear by the second of four side-length pieces, with really well-equalized, detailed field recordings of reverberated metal scraping, some odd thumping, and microtonal high-end. Ghostly whistling in background slowly morphing into electronic hum. Acoustics focus on resonance as much as sound of impact/friction. Animal noises add more interesting atmosphere than simple melancholia/introversion.
Third piece is on the noisier, more fluid side of things, bringing to mind Arv & Miljo's "Oppna Vattendrag" – static-like hiss against slight water rumblings and shifting, loud-ish mid-range metal, wall-of-noise building arc structure... then things wind down quickly, and I am fairly sure I like this piece a bit more than it's comparative tape, though. Takes on a loose rhythmic quality as slight reverb seems to intrude and add room to an already-spacious track. Pretty sure some of the source sounds used here are just recordings of thunder, which if so, is a great choice. Just the right amount of tape-recorder crunch, too. I can see here some vague comparisons to Stefan Aune's Kjostad project.
Similar introduction to fourth piece: immediately-recognizeable "busy" field recording of flowing water, birds chirping, cars passing in distance, slight breeze, lending a bright, exuberant quality I'd like to see more of in tape-music. Some labels would probably release an entire tape of this. Bass-blown sound of wind against tape recorder mic. A good recording is just that. This project seems to fit right alongside Kjostad and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes that one, I doubt they'd find much fault here.
Händer Som Vårdar "Anhedonia" CS (Throne Heap) Somewhat "tasteful" and/or "socially acceptable" yet no less challenging stuff from ever-evolving, always suprising HSV. Straight away, this stuff reminds me of a less comical, less happy-go-lucky Head Boggle (therefore far superior) in that it's driven by what appears to be a modular synth setup alongside something more typical, and maintains a certain palette and texture throughout despite a diverse range of sound, but relies on edits/cuts enough to qualify as musique concréte as much as the dreaded vagueness of "experimental." In the latter half, the emphasis on electronics shifts toward tape and edits.
Side A has two pieces indistinguishable as to where the first ends and second begins. A constantly-moving, shifting, and intersecting piece of tape-edited and sometimes-manipulated synthesizer sounds (and occasional acoustic details) which seem to have center of more consistent, loop-based structures in between two more frantically-changing left and right channels. Things continually move and change until the tape stops, at one point slowing down considerably and focusing on two loops in particular, presumably being the second track.
Side B has three pieces, the first of which takes a slower pace and almost zero edits in comparison to the previous side, emphasizing tone and texture with little noticeable movement, giving a pretty big contrast. Second piece features more prominent tape edits and more obvious use of tape in general; from production/fidelity to specific cuts of recordings, such as a blown out recording of someone playing a drum set, some outdoor stillness, deck motor hum, and so on. Occasional bursts of rattling sounds or delay-effected electronics. Things pan around the mix from left and right, moving outward and inward as well as side-to-side. No real distinguishable split between the last two pieces. Overall, probably the best work so far from HSV and one of my favorite tapes from Throne Heap. Definitely one I'll revisit frequently.
Vast Glory "Scorpio" CS (La Cohu) Always perfect. "Vast Glory" is certainly right. Might even say it's my favorite harsh noise/wall noise/whatever you call it of it's kind. Even more than Zone Nord, Dead Body Love, or Monde Bruits. Always minimal and captivating, slowly-building, undulating, interlocking layers of hard electronic sound, always only using a Roland SH-101. This interation even has a rhythmic undertow on the A-side piece, which relies, mostly (and as usual) mid-range, windy static noise textures. B-side piece begins with more "pummeling," lower but still mid-range textures, with that looping bassy grind that Dead Body Love and early Rita can rival VG with. Eventually, that shifts into a skittering higher-end pattern that slowly reveals a harsh background drone that combines a lower sine wave with a hard, higher square wave.
This tape is an example of the way this project is able to capture a wider range of emotions/atmospheres/whatever than the usual anchor of taboo, extremity or whatever that often accompanies harsh noise. Rather, this is just an extreme listening experience, and I'd say extremely soothing/relaxing/healing. Ian told me once that he'd hoped to do something that was just the static noise version of Eliane Radigue, or something like that, anyway, he succeeded. Pure meditative bliss. No concept, no message, no content. Who needs Vomir when you've got Vast Glory?
Harness "Sleight of Hand" CS (Imminent Frequencies) One might generally expect "musique concrete" when applied to known US noise guys to mean something more like crude, tape-manipulated quieter sounds with an industrial austerity. Not the case here. Although at one point an early-Whitehouse-type feedback flutter emerges amidst tape-slowed lord-knows-what and water droplets, it's not until several minutes of carefully-filtered cricket sounds have gone by. In other words, not so much the deliberate corrosion and abrasion to be found here, but serious exploration of sound detail executed with precision and clarity. Without trying to explain technically, in that sense, it's similar to Italy's Elisha Morningstar. Given the restrained volume, quite "musical" sense of timing, and the "pastoral" nature of the sounds (faucet, wood creaking, clock ticking, etc), this is pretty much at home on the more "academic" (but still underground) Imminent Frequencies.
Although there's a tight, appreciable sense of composition and sound pairing here, it's the kind of thing that makes me hungry for more rather than satisfied with this helping – in all, the sounds do feel a bit "mundane" for my immediate liking. Second A-side piece begins with more aggressive, spacious metal acoustics and some nicely-placed echo effects, with what sounds like some of the same water recordings from the first piece making a re-appearance. Considering what I'd describe as the relatively high fidelity nature of this recording, I'm wondering if reel-to-reel tape is perhaps involved as well as cassette tapes.
Interesting and detailed wind recording with some distant and not too intrusive chimes drift along for quite a while opening the B-side first piece, after a bit revealing subtle low drones before a burst of chimes, then end. Although I do enjoy wind sounds, I'm not sure how well the simplicity of that track worked as an entire piece. Along the same lines, treated chime sounds along with some resonant, occasional pounding metal introduce side B's second piece, which seems to have the strangest accents yet in terms of warbly tape treatment. Again perhaps a bit too straightforward, despite that, this may be my favorite track on this tape. Overall, this project seems to be about subtle restraint and discretion, rather than overt boldness or blatant-ness. I'm not always in the mood for this type of thing, but I can definitely say I'll be seeing what else Harness currently has to offer.
