Customer Reviews

An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music: Third A-Chronology, Vol. 3, 1952-2004

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, here we go with the third volume in Guy Marc Hinant's subjective overview of noise and electronic compositions. And he hit some real pay dirt with this one, so here we go:

De Natura Sonorum: Matieres Induites: ****
Sound manipulation. It starts off great, then kind of just peters out at the end, but that's what you get when you pull pieces out of context. But it does start off great.

The Sackbut Blues / A Noisome Pestilence: ***
Split on this one. It's actually two pieces, neither of which have anything in common but the composer. The first piece is a spoken introduction by the composer, and a rather kitschy little piece for something called the Sackbut. It's really out of place here. Eh. But the second, A Noisome Pestilence, is a true noise composition, and a very good one. One star for the first piece, four stars for the second piece.

Stero Music For Serge Modular Prototype: ***
This one's all right, but seems strangely cliched. Has its moments.

The Last Largo: ****
This is more like an expiremental New Age piece than an electronic composition (New Age in the context of early Vangelis and Wendy Carlos, NOT ambient guitar and/or piano). Lengthy, but fun to listen to.

Room Pieces: Excerpt: ***
Another sound manipulation recording. Good, but doesn't seem to know where to go or what to do.

Ovipool: ****
This is more like it. More sound manipulation, but with some good drama thrown into the mix.

Stone: Reciprocal: ****
Nice one. Yet more sound manipulation, this time of the sound of rocks rubbing against each other. Of course, like any good "noise" composition, it's not the source of the sounds that matters, but the way in which their recorded and edited. This one holds together.

Flume: ****
Cool atmosphere, cool sounds. Sounds like the soundtrack to Hell's geyser.

Untitled #148: *
No matter how much I try, I just cannot generate much enthusiasm for this one. It sounds slapdash, and ten minutes of it to boot.

Execution Of Intelligence: **
More of Guy's fascination with the loud, abrasive stuff. It gets two stars just because its so well done, but it gets on my nerves something awful.

Birds And Warhorse: ***
And then there's stuff like this. Difficult to define, it takes the sounds of gobbling turkeys and something dark and menacing coming up from behind. For me, it's too long, but some of the sounds in this one continue to haunt me. It is an effective piece.

Dies Irae: *****
Now THIS is a real piece. A drastic reinterpretation of the Dies Irae. It manages to really dig into the subconscious and produce something truly disturbing and terrifying.

Sahkosoittimen aania #4 + #1: *
This sounds more like a demonstration of oscillation and the guy's drum machine. I can't find anything really of importance here.

time..dot (3): **
A cool sound, but seems to just be content to sit. Cool sounds are great, but the lack of anything else to interact with it just doesn't win me over.

Early Work 6: *
Another piece that just seems content to sit. See above.

Klangstudies II: ****
A wonderful sound study. Trippy AND it produces more than just a background noise. It builds nicely.

Eve: **
This is okay, but it doesn't hold much substance for me. It also takes way too long to get to a point that doesn't seem to have a point.

Teilmenge 35 C: ***
More fun with oscillators. It's okay, it's fun to listen to, but again seems light on substance.

Feuerland: ****
No, this doesn't fit on the set very well. Guy puts it simply: "This piece, chosen by Michael Rother, comes from his first solo album." This after a very long biography of all the innovative stuff Michael Rother's done... I'd guess that Guy was annoyed that Michael thought this was an appropriate track for the proceedings.

But it's a great track. It's one of the few with any kind of standard chord structure on any of the discs. By the way, Michael Rother was part of Kraftwerk and, after that fell through for him, Neu. He also worked with Conny Plank, which puts him two degrees of separation away from both Killing Joke and the Scorpions.

The Faust Tapes: Untitled #16 + #17: ****
Some German band that started in the early seventies. They did largely avant-garde abstract concrete music in general, lots of sound collages, and plowed their way out of their record contract after four albums due to abysmal sales (it's hard to compete when you don't have a demographic...). Sounds great, though. They apparently revived in the mid-nineties, to a much better response. Maybe we are evolving...

Contacte: *
This one does nothing for me. It's just quiet and repetitive.

Till Zakynthos: *****
Wow, wow, wow. When I first heard this, I was determined to delve more into Rune Lindblad's stuff, which is hard to find, and more difficult to appreciate than this one. But this one kicks ass. A precious piece, previously unreleased. Slow, stately and more than just a little creepy. It sounds like the soundtrack for a horror movie. One of my favorites in the entire anthology, and not available anywhere else. Beautiful mastering, the sound is exquisite.

Eternal Love #3: ****
This is one of those static pieces, although not 30 minutes long (thank God). But I love the slow build-up (there is a build-up, be patient!) and for some reason, the static noise they are manipulating trips me out. The only place to put it on a CD is at the end. Ambience rules on this one.

Again, another great job by Guy. This one hit me right between the eyes.

To understand this review, take a look at the reviews of the other volumes in this series...
Some of the music on this series is so weird and beautiful that the composers should be grateful that it is released here. They should think of this series as a sampler which might atract us, the general public, into further investigation of their work, which we most probably would have never had the chance to hear it or become aware of its existence or of the composers/artists. Don't be so greedy... for I believe you have been done a favor. The same goes for the other volumes of this series. TWO THUMBS UP!