Customer Reviews

Data Rape [Vinyl]

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Way back in 1969, George Harrison released an album of electronic sounds called 'Electronic Sound'. It was a collection of odd sounds recorded with a primitive Moog, and it reminds me a lot of this. EAR's 'Data Rape' was, according to the liner notes, created with several old 'Speak and Spell' machines suitably altered to produce random strings of grinding digital noise, which the group then passed through a mixture of echo and reverb. None of the tracks have anything resembling a tune or a rhythm, and a lot of it sounds like an alarm clock in an echoey room (or an old Sinclair Spectrum tape, slowed down). Indeed it is reminiscent of the work of 'Total', another group of noise terrorists, albeit that Total used guitar feedback.

Taken on its own merits, as an ambient background wash, it's nice enough; but as a piece of experimental audio research it falls apart, because there's no progression beyond the first track. Rather like Harrison's 'Electronic Sound', there's nothing beyond the novelty of listening to transmogrified Speak'n'Spell machines being tortured. It's as if EAR had built a piano, and then photographed it.

That's all there is to this record. 73 minutes of pure noise twisted into different forms throughout. This is not easy going nor is it melodic. It is possibly the best to put on when you are jaded after another long, hard day of work - this is, surprisingly, the best sort of CD for those type of days. Although I wouldn't exactly call this music - it's the perfect tonic for open minded people to enjoy.