Tape That "Autumn Collection" CD
[Humbug]
This is a rather odd CD-R collecting six tracks from this European duo that basically creates compositions using recordings via minidiscs and samplers (contrabass and "objects" are also credited), but the end result is a rather quiet and sparse journey that, in my honest opinion, is pretty boring. It's kind of interesting for a few minutes in that the tracks basically sound like strange field recordings of random everyday events: Walking up/down stairs, keys jingling, objects being moved or shuffled, doors closing, a game of table tennis, brief snippets of dialogue, etc. These are just examples of what some of these sounds come across as, of course, and it can be curious. What starts to bore me is the fact that most of the songs are more than six or eight minutes long, and aside from the brief "Pick Up the Foam" few of the selections feel like they're all that active or involved. In certain instances it sounds like effects have been applied to the source sounds, and you can tell at times that there has been a good deal of cutting up and splicing together/layering of sounds... but it largely plays as quiet, soft, and sparse, so it's not all that interesting or engaging at all, especially considering the disc runs about 45 minutes in length. Portions of the aptly titled "Metal Type II" start breaking up the monotony with loud and succinct samples of metal music or something, but it still gets old for more than six minutes. And closer "This Has Been Taped" kind of sounds like someone preparing dinner while someone else takes a shower and someone else reads the newspaper or something like that. It's the kind of stuff that would probably be curious as the backing track to an experimental film or something, but without any visual accompaniment it's just not the kind of thing that I find interesting to listen to for more than five or 10 minutes. The packaging is nice, however. The disc comes in a thick slipcase with collaged imagery on the cover, and elsewhere it's just crisp text over black backgrounds, but it does look nice and clean for an inexpensive D.I.Y. affair. I don't know, they do have their own kind of thing going on with this material, and I respect the effort they've put into it (especially with how they correlate their approach to some of the ideas included on the insert that cite notable quotes about tape documentation), but for me it's just not something I can get into. Sorry! (4/10)
Running time - 44:23, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: no one particular track wins me over]
Humbug - http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm

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