Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Scrub Brush For The Synapses
Alan Licht: "The Old Victrola"
Alan Licht is an experimental composer, documented devotee of Steve Reich and Martha Quinn, and all-around good name to drop if you're looking to get intimate with someone who actually listens to Slitbreeze records. This is one of two longform indulgences on Plays Well, available from Crank Automotive outta Arington, VA. The other, "Remington Khan," is meditative guitar atmosphere in the well-trod Fahey tradition, but "The Old Victrola" is something else. Recorded in 1995 at Chicago's Lounge Ax and then recorded some more at the 2000 Transmissions Festival, it loops the hook from Donna Summer's "Dim All The Lights" until it cleanses the nervous system of all musical memories and preferences. Then it slams into a Buddhistic wall-o'-noise. I'd wager the clapping comes from the 2000 performance, by which time underground rock buffs were more prepared to enjoy this sort of exercise. Like any good getaway, it's long as a motherfucker and it changes you.
For those of you playing at home, the missus scored this disc at a second-hand store for $1. For MezEclExt readers who don't deal in American scratch, that's approx one (1) RCH in excess of "free." And you get to sample it on the house, 'cause we dig ya like that.
Alan Licht: "The Old Victrola"
Alan Licht is an experimental composer, documented devotee of Steve Reich and Martha Quinn, and all-around good name to drop if you're looking to get intimate with someone who actually listens to Slitbreeze records. This is one of two longform indulgences on Plays Well, available from Crank Automotive outta Arington, VA. The other, "Remington Khan," is meditative guitar atmosphere in the well-trod Fahey tradition, but "The Old Victrola" is something else. Recorded in 1995 at Chicago's Lounge Ax and then recorded some more at the 2000 Transmissions Festival, it loops the hook from Donna Summer's "Dim All The Lights" until it cleanses the nervous system of all musical memories and preferences. Then it slams into a Buddhistic wall-o'-noise. I'd wager the clapping comes from the 2000 performance, by which time underground rock buffs were more prepared to enjoy this sort of exercise. Like any good getaway, it's long as a motherfucker and it changes you.
For those of you playing at home, the missus scored this disc at a second-hand store for $1. For MezEclExt readers who don't deal in American scratch, that's approx one (1) RCH in excess of "free." And you get to sample it on the house, 'cause we dig ya like that.
