v/a "Cottage Industrial Vol. 3" compilation CD
[Humbug]
First up on this international collection is Ryfylke (Norway), with more of the crisp and abrasive electronic noise that impressed me on their debut full-length. Raionbashi then follows with another succinct track that uses a cutup style with lots of raw vocals and aggressive distortion interspersed with serene field recordings of chirping birds and such. Wawa's contribution is also brief, opening with flitting glitches and transforming into more of a midrange chirp with some lighter wisps of faint high-end at times for a track that fits nicely with the preceding selections. Orange, Manifold takes a different road with the lengthy (nearly 10 minutes) "The Depth of the Sky Like an Orgy of Frozen Light", which layers deeply resonating textures with ethereal ringing sounds and lots of percussive elements (thought not of a rhythmic nature per se) - created using a metal bed frame, springs, a radio, and wire hangars, in additional to other metal objects and effects. Opening with stuttered beats is Sinistri (Italy), with "Norway Pulse", which kind of builds into an odd piece that uses a lot of panning effects and back and forth swells with a few ambient undertones and brief spurts of guitar chords as well. Pho (with Didi Bruckmayr) offers an insane live recording with shitloads of bashing percussion courtesy of two drummers, maniacal vocals that sound like Japanese hardcore on massive drugs, and lots of general distortion amidst it all. Intense, to say the least. Ovo (Itlay) creates an obscure piece using guitar and whistle with lots of effects, though honestly even at only three minutes I find this piece to be rather random and uninteresting overall, despite some background textures that seem cool. The whistle just kills it for me. Wooden Wand and Satya Sai Baba recorded their collaboration live to tape and despite the fact that stringed instruments were obviously employed, they've created an unusual piece that makes effective use of repetition and kind of has a circular motion to it that's almost hypnotic in aesthetic. Excepter's "Wet Margarete" is next and immediately rubs me the wrong way with annoying monotone spoken vocals over synths and distant female singing that all kind of jumbles together. The female singing has some potential, but within this context I'm not liking it, and the music/spoken vocals are really quite irritating and distracting. Another massive 10-minute track, this time from Lunt (France), takes over and brings things back to a stronger level of quality with an improvised piece using just guitar and effects with a lot of layered loops that mask the source sound well and have another ethereal sort of ring going on. It's subtly melodic at times as some of the guitar notes become more evident, but I like the way it transpires overall. Maskinanlegg's selection is dominated by a sample that sounds like it came potentially untouched from some sort of old vinyl record that messes with stereo panning. Who knows? I've never heard of Moth (Australia), but apparently the eight-minute "Ohne Titel" that appears here is his final recorded work, and I can't say I'm impressed by the sparse and improvised composition consisting of lulls of guitar with some scraping sounds and distant hums, along with plenty of shuffling room noise and other such subtleties for added detail. Not bad, but certainly a bit boring. Anders Hana follows with a similar track that uses more abstract guitar sounds and a much smoother, cleaner recording to its benefit. Then it's onto another track from Ryfylke (thicker and rawer harsh noise that's still restrained and chopped up) and a solo piece from Pho (which sounds just like the live track sans the wild vocals) before Violets Rock 'n' Roll unloads a couple of minutes of little kids improvising lyrics and fucking around on instruments. It's been done before, but hey, it's still brilliant on some level, so sign me up! Idea Fire Company then closes out with a live recording from The Schoolhouse in Massachusetts, using synths and vocals among other sources for a rather strange and repetitious piece that has an unusual approach. I don't care for it, but I have to say there's something intriguing about it. I'm not sure how many of these songs are exclusive, but some are indicated as being previously released, while others seem to find their homes on this collection and nowhere else. The disc is packaged in a nice, thick sleeve that uses collages of strange imagery, and inside is a plain text insert with contact information and track titles for each artist. I'm not overly impressed by this collection as much of the material comes from a realm of experimental noise that I'm not particularly fond of, but there are some definite winners, and a few names that I've been introduced to that I wouldn't have been otherwise, so... not bad. Not great, but there's some value to it. (6/10)
Running time - 79:51, Tracks: 17
[Notable tracks: Ryfylke, Orange, Manifold, Pho with Didi Bruckmayr, Lunt, Violets Rock 'n' Roll]
Humbug - http://www.tibprod.com/humbug.htm

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