vital weekly:
(By the way, the DVD does include the original "333" release, and the track list is easily viewable.)
MACHINE LISTENER - SENTIENT SYSTEM (CDR by No Part Of It)
333REDUX (DVDR by No Part Of It)
This was released before, by Sk Sk in an extremely small edition, it now is re-issued by No Part Of It.
Machine Listener is Matthew Gallagher, and he also has a LP on Tusco Embassy, which is a pure
synth album. This particular CDR uses machines, of whatever kind, and mostly the electro-magnetic
sounds they produce; this was before Gallagher's moved in the realm of synthesizers. No Part Of It
write "whatever the case may be, "Sentient System" is unlike any other recording you'll ever hear",
which seems to me a very bold statement, as what I hear sounds most of the time delving in the
old school industrial music, via raw sounds, much feedback, loops of concrete noise (or machines,
who knows?), but also into a much quieter and subdued version of that, such as in 'Primeval
Forest/Sentinel', which is a very beautiful ambient piece. His noise is very rough, going through
wild stages of crushing distortion and feedback, with all the effects open to the max. It is
something I heard before, and a lot. The noise of Machine Listener was at times a bit too simple
for my taste, but in those pieces where he pulls back and allows his sounds to breath, where he
gives them a bit of space, it actually worked much better for me. Here too I believe I didn't hear
something that wasn't heard before, but it simply was altogether more appealing to me. I'd be
curious to hear what Machine Listener does when it comes to 'pure synth'.
The other release i9s a DVDR with some eight hours of music, all of which is based upon
music by Arvo Zylo's '333' by 33 different artists. None of them received any specific stems
from Zylo, but rather 'the whole thing' to work with. Among these artists I recognized a handful
of names, such as Vertonen, Daniel Burke, Jliat, Blood Rhythms, Hans Grusel, Thirteen Hurts, Bran
(...) Pos, Dave Phillips, Sudden Infant, Somnoroase Pasarele and that means that most of the
others I never heard of; people like Bull of Heaven, Bruce Lamont, Bride, Skulsyr (TOMB, Dreadlords),
Protman, Insect Deli, Nows, Trou, Marlo Eggplant and so many others. I also never heard the original
so it's a bit difficult to judge this; it must surely a varied bunch of sounds in the original, as the
results/remixes/re-whatever is also a varied bunch, even when the words 'drone' and 'noise' were
noted the most. Some of these pieces are very long, forty minutes for Blood Rhythms for instance
up to three hours for Jliat (Insect Deli seems to have the shortest remix, thirty-seven seconds);
those are exceptions of course, most of the tracks are between three and fifteen minutes. There is
no track listing on the cover so one has to put the DVD-R in and keep an eye on what is playing -
right now, let me see, a rather rhythmic piece by Somnoroase Pasarele, which is quite nice. I rather
look at a box, also to know what's coming on next, Enoxeaon, it seems. Best is to treat the whole
thing like a radio program of experimental music that goes on and on. I had a similar experience
last week when I played that release that was mentioned in Vital Weekly, 'Homework 1', which was
over seven hours of drone music, in all its variations. Maybe it is the time of the year that has these
long releases, seven hours of Kevin Drumm, three of Splinter Orchestra, eight of '333 Redux', one
easily passes the horrible slow days between Christmas and New Year's Eve. And sometimes you
just skip one, all too noisy beast, or loop track (sorry about that, Jliat!). (FdW)
––– Address:
http://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/
