Aube "Chain [Re]Action" CD
[Blossoming Noise]
Here we have over an hour of very minimal experimental noise from this longstanding Japanese artist, recorded entirely using metal chains as source sounds. Each track runs well past 10 minutes, and tends to develop very slowly with repetitious ambient tones shifting and changing very subtly over the course of time. Just about halfway through opener "The Metal Cicada" things cut out very sharply to near silence, sort of beginning anew with very faint clicking sounds (like chains being rubbed together rather softly), which is almost startling. This happens again, but using faint wisps of ambient sound in between, just as things transition into "Vibrate Quietly", which is indeed incredibly quiet and simplistic. Eventually a thick low-end pulse brings in more density as lightly metallic midrange textures come in to bring up the volume, but overall it's a pretty laidback piece. Perhaps more atmospheric and sinister on some level? "Re[sound]" quickly jumps between glitchy and resonant chain sounds and throbbing bass currents, feeling more shuffled and hectic, bit still on the fairly minimal side in the grand scheme of things - it's certainly not a chaotic piece. Once it gets going, in fact, it remains largely unchanged for most of its 13 minutes. The massive 19+ minute "Recondite" follows, built seemingly entirely out of loops that undergo minor manipulation in EQ and such types of filters as things ebb and flow. It certainly gets effectively hypnotic at times, but for nearly 20 minutes I'd be remiss not to call it a bit boring, you know? "Spasmodic Repetition" then ends things out with tons of delay hovering around some of the most obvious sounds of jingling chains, and while I wouldn't call it spasmodic, it's damn sure repetitious, as it all sounds almost exactly the same for just a touch over 13 minutes (with one eerier midrange drone cutting in to make things slightly more interesting). I think the sound quality is very nice on this release. It's crisp and clear with a lot of different tones and levels of volume intensity represented, but it doesn't feel lifelessly digital or anything like that at all. Some of the structures and looped sounds do kind of have more of that digital ring happening, but not to the point where it becomes problematic for me. The CD comes in a slim cardboard slipcase with subtly colored images of chains over a similar blackened background image, using minimal text to present the necessary information. It's definitely minimal, but it looks nice and gets the job done in this instance. When all is said and done this is a nice release and quite a good debut release for this new label across the board, I just personally find the sounds to be somewhat stagnant and inactive considering the length of the CD. It doesn't hold my interest for its entirety, despite being a pretty high quality release overall. (6/10)
Running time - 71:34, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: The Metal Cicada, Vibrate Quietly]
Blossoming Noise - http://www.blossomingnoise.com

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