If there’s one thing that’s way misunderstood about experimental music, it’s the scarcity/exclusivity angle. I’ll be the first to admit that there’s probably something very scoff-worthy about the “limited edition of 7” issue, particularly in those cases where at least a thousand grimy noise nerds are going to be clawing at each other’s throat over that oh-so-rare cassette-only masterpiece packaged in duct tape and used tissues or whatever (actually, I’m pretty sure this is Spite’s business model). If you’re a bit charitable, however, you might think of a short-run CDr or MP3 release as an opportunity for artists to float around good ideas to a small audience without having to live next to a depressing stack of unsold CDs for the rest of their days. Still, some things slip through the cracks. In fact, handfuls of worthwhile listens remain pretty much completely unreachable as a result of several inherent flaws in the small-batch media biz—out-of-printness, shady/shaky contact information, impenetrable web pages, flaky label operators, etc… Here’s a small selection of gems rescued from such obscurity:
Julien Ottavi– etudesauxhertz2, [mp3-only release]
Nantes-based laptopper/perucssionist Ottavi’s recent Nervure Magnetique was easily one of the best records of the past year—a sucker-punch scary mixture of ghostly bell tones, nail-biting silences, and insanely dense pools of white noise delivered with Scanners-grade head-exploding intensity. Unfortunately, Ottavi’s web design skills fall well short of his compositional gifts. Locked deep inside the tangle of strange Babelfish French-to-English conversions and aimless links of his homepage is a collection of live recordings and studio experiments that document pre-Nervure sketches. This twenty-minute suite in sine waves and speaker saturation best captures Ottavi’s penchant for sonic extremes and well-placed spatial detail. With only a handful of oscillator tones modulated through speaker clipping and precise layering, Ottavi kinks sine waves into barbed wire or winds them into slow, ringing drones—his arrangements aren’t musical in any conventional sense, but a rigorous sculptural exercise. Like the shortwave static etudes of his occasional collaborator Dion Workman, there’s a touch of cruelty in this investigative project: cool, rational and seemingly unconcerned with the frailties of the listener. Visceral, affective stuff for the strong of ear and heart.
[visit Ottavi’s website here, read Ed Howard’s review of Nervure Magnétique here, buy Nervure Magnétique here]
Mike Shiflet and Brent Gutzeit– 11.22.02, [unreleased live recording]
Direct from the archives of my friend, collaborator, and sometimes Stylus scribe Mike Shiflet, this squirrelly set of sputtering test tone generator and contact microphone abuse is an early effort from the oft-recorded and ne’er-released Blanco Nińo duo. Recorded at Columbus’ much-missed Acme Art as part of an evening that also featured equally inspiring sets from Greg Kelley and Mike Bullock (written about with slightly embarrassing breathlessness here, it’s a stark contrast to the crystal-clear tinnitus meditation of Gutzeit’s later solo set and the slow’n’grainy grind of Shiflet’s regular work. In a corner of the musical universe marked by lots of straight-faced endeavors, Shiflet and Gutzeit have mischievous streaks a mile wide and they’re not afraid to make a mess. There’s an undercurrent of brinkmanship that jolts this set from a subtle string throb to a smear of sixty-hertz hum in just under ten minutes—to say nothing of the handful of false starts, false stops, and perhaps even a false middle or two wrangled out along the way. Enough fun that I’ll strain my “journalistic integrity” (*snicker*) to spread the word.
[visit Mike Shiflet’s Gameboy Records website here, visit Brent Gutzeit’s BOXmedia Records website here]
Thomas Ankersmit and Kevin Drumm– Untitled, [Thomas Ankersmit/Kevin Drumm, out-of-print CDr]
The kinda-sorta collaborative CDr between saxophonist Ankersmit and guitar/synth/terror wizard Kevin Drumm is hands-down one of the most sought-after and completely mysterious items on the KD completist circuit. Nobody’s sure who released it, nobody’s sure when it was released, and nobody’s really sure of the degree of Drumm’s involvement (word on the street is that it’s Ankersmit tweaking samples), but it’s still a worthwhile listen as a time-biding treat in the current post-Lurches lull. The trademark bee stings-on-the-pickups guitar scraping is in full effect, crackling atop a gently modulating organ drone presumably lifted from Drumm’s similarly rare Second album. In fact, I’d be tempted to credit the whole thing to Drumm were it not for the speed-phasing of layered electric motor whirring that prefigures two tracks of Ankersmit’s “Niblock on helium” multitracked sax buzz (better heard on this considerably easier-to-find 3”). Bonus mystery points are awarded for the extended silence at close—very Francisco Lopez. If you have any better idea as to who/what is going on here, the comment box is all yours!
[for more information on Ankersmit, visit his Discogs page here, read Joe’s interview with Kevin Drumm here, buy Land of Lurches here]
Note: These tracks are no longer available for download.
September 20th, 2004 at 4:49 pm
this was truly great joe. that shiflet/gutzeit is amazing. especially in that it’s from 2 years ago.