Reviews

[FAP]

The fuck is this shit?

For me the real crime is with Total Black not putting up an audio sample
I think you're being a little hard on Gilden and Ramirez, considering this is from the early 90's Texas, the fact it existed at all is of value.
It's maybe more appropreate for a cassette rip on arcive dot org than a 10 euro cd(r)

Oh, I like their work, at least some of it: if I’m coming off as too harsh (no pun intended), it’s because I know they’ve done better.

[FLORIDA MAN]

I know they’ve done better.

I did a quick search to find an example from the pair, around the same time...


THIS KICKS ASS!

[FAP]

TBH I didn’t care much for that one either. I thought the [lack of] production—aka the “let’s make a digital backup of this old tape recording and clip the fuck out of it in post to make it sound harsher” approach—could’ve been handled better, but hey, I’m not RR. He seems to prefer that kind of approach anyways; “more is more.”

See, I can still appreciate that one more than Static Fuzz Droll because IIRC it wasn’t nearly as much blatantly lazy and dare I say amateur as SFD was. I’m genuinely curious: did they (RR+DG) intentionally record a shorter noise session, loop it and reverse it for the right channel just to pad out the runtime? Or was this done years later, specifically for this reissue?

[FLORIDA MAN]

I’m genuinely curious: did they (RR+DG) intentionally record a shorter noise session, loop it and reverse it for the right channel just to pad out the runtime? Or was this done years later, specifically for this reissue?

'German engineering'
I doubt that was even recorded originally on dat..more like a 4 track and a tape deck. That could explain the right channel being reversed.
Also..the run time of the release is 72min? what...shortened from a 90 min tape?

"presented in an unbroken format on CD" - Total Black

[FAP]

Bob James Trio - Explosions (1965)


A short if somewhat middling free jazz album. Still, it must’ve been pretty out there for the time: Explosions has a fair amount of electronics and tape manipulation going on, which as far as I can tell was (and to some extent still is) a rare element to include in a free jazz record, let alone any jazz record. It’s charming enough, though.

Of particular note is the closing track “Wolfman,” one because it’s arguably the best track on the album, and two for Robert Ashley’s involvement in it. Mr. Ashley contributed the backing tape collage used in this track; said backing tape, without the Bob James Trio’s overlaid instrumentation, can be found on the 2003 Robert Ashley compilation Wolfman, this time titled as, color me surprised… “The Wolfman Tape.” I think Mr. Ashley had a bit of a one-track mind, eh?

Lycanthropic paraphilia aside, overall I thought Explosions was fairly adequate in terms of entertainment value. To give them credit, it wasn’t boring or offensive: if anything, I think it'd make for some nice study music.

[barbedwiresmile]

TBH I didn’t care much for that one either. I thought the [lack of] production—aka the “let’s make a digital backup of this old tape recording and clip the fuck out of it in post to make it sound harsher” approach—could’ve been handled better, but hey, I’m not RR. He seems to prefer that kind of approach anyways; “more is more.”

See, I can still appreciate that one more than Static Fuzz Droll because IIRC it wasn’t nearly as much blatantly lazy and dare I say amateur as SFD was. I’m genuinely curious: did they (RR+DG) intentionally record a shorter noise session, loop it and reverse it for the right channel just to pad out the runtime? Or was this done years later, specifically for this reissue?

I personally find Ramirez output to be forgetful at best. Quantity doesn't equate to quality (no I'm not talking about audio quality). Gilden was interesting.

[iNtox-Z]

Waiting for you guys on my Steam, 19/08/2023 - my birthday is 40 years old, but
this date is not customary to celebrate and therefore
I will just spend a long Stream of brutally Harsh Noise with what I could get over the years of my life.