"Merely Resurrected": Foxy Digitalis Review
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=3610
Here's the winner. "Merely Resurrected" features a mutation/corroboration of To Live and Shave in LA members Rat Bastard, Andrew Barranca, Ben Wolcott, Tom Smith, Chris Grier and Graham Moore (the henchman behind Blossoming Noise.) Sounds like Tom Smith might be the wizard here*; mixing and arranging the prolific group's source material into rich, dark tapestries of homebrewed, de-territorialized musique concrete.
It's like listening to a lost, LSD-damaged DJ Premier mix tape; the motifs consistently imply a sort of MPC-60 style choppy musicality, but Smith never completely gives in, instead opting for jagged, morphing edges and empty noiseways. Samples are arranged in such a way that there's a semblance of a tonal center; a drone in each scène du transmission that focuses the intensity of the frenetic samples. The cuts are violent and acute, but never so freaked out as to induce sonic schizophrenia. In fact, "Merely Resurrected" is deeply meditative at almost any volume; layers upon layers of buried noise detritus and fragment seemingly converge and sublimate at any moment. Both the TLASILA source material and the brilliant arrangement thereof create an aesthetic tension with one another; like a machine controlling a mage, resurrecting and rearranging old magic so that it can deliver its communique from the future. Total creep mode achieved. Highly recommended.
9/10 -- Daniel Lopatin (6 August, 2008)
* (Oui, c'est vrai. I also corrected Mr. Lopatin's misspelling of Andrew Barranca's name... No harm, no foul.)
Here's the winner. "Merely Resurrected" features a mutation/corroboration of To Live and Shave in LA members Rat Bastard, Andrew Barranca, Ben Wolcott, Tom Smith, Chris Grier and Graham Moore (the henchman behind Blossoming Noise.) Sounds like Tom Smith might be the wizard here*; mixing and arranging the prolific group's source material into rich, dark tapestries of homebrewed, de-territorialized musique concrete.
It's like listening to a lost, LSD-damaged DJ Premier mix tape; the motifs consistently imply a sort of MPC-60 style choppy musicality, but Smith never completely gives in, instead opting for jagged, morphing edges and empty noiseways. Samples are arranged in such a way that there's a semblance of a tonal center; a drone in each scène du transmission that focuses the intensity of the frenetic samples. The cuts are violent and acute, but never so freaked out as to induce sonic schizophrenia. In fact, "Merely Resurrected" is deeply meditative at almost any volume; layers upon layers of buried noise detritus and fragment seemingly converge and sublimate at any moment. Both the TLASILA source material and the brilliant arrangement thereof create an aesthetic tension with one another; like a machine controlling a mage, resurrecting and rearranging old magic so that it can deliver its communique from the future. Total creep mode achieved. Highly recommended.
9/10 -- Daniel Lopatin (6 August, 2008)
* (Oui, c'est vrai. I also corrected Mr. Lopatin's misspelling of Andrew Barranca's name... No harm, no foul.)
Comments
So how is the Menlo Park box expected to be available? I'm fairly new to this TLASILA business and don't want to miss the box. Noon To Eternity has become my #1 go-to audio support for crunching numbers and stuff at work.
Cheers,
I believe Marc's idea is to release two, two-disc compilations in comparative proximity (beginning in 2009), and then rejoin the pair in some sort of decorative/embossed/anthrax-dipped keepsake at a later date.
I don't expect (what's left of the) record-buying public to be sent into a lather over the box, tentatively yclept Refusal; a surfeit of units, yet birthed, await your perusal.
Great thanks for your kind thoughts re Noon and MR.
Sincerely Yours,
Tom
best,
dl