the One (family)”
live @ SOMETHINGseries” (Amok
Recordings)
When
I think about music labeled in the genre of noise, I’m not sure if I could name
you even one noise band. You would say,
“So and so is a noise band”, and I’d probably say “Oh yeah, I know them”, but
when put on the spot, no, I can’t really think of any noise bands.
That
being said, I’m pretty sure that this is a noise band or to be more precise, a
drone noise band. While Side A both
begins and ends with applause, what comes in between that is somewhere between
the strings of Blue October, a particular noise I remember from an Atari Return
of the Jedi game, a vacuum (in a cleaning sense, like Hoover) and Frampton
Comes Alive. Oh, there are some musical
bits here and there with cymbals and it can even get a little industrial like
The Downward Spiral. But for the most
part, I cannot tell whether or not this is a series of songs or just one really
long song. Given the applause factor, I
assume that Side A is one really long song, as is Side B.
In
some ways, I like having the cassette this way because I don’t really know much
about it and thus have to form my own conclusions, which is almost more fun
than being told what the set list is exactly.
Side
B begins in a slower, more climbing sort of way with some electronic stuff like
beeps and bloops. Then it turns into a
drum machine and a guitar loop. This is
definitely bordering very closely on noise, if it is not considered to be
noise. And after a thus far instrumental
album, the female computer programmed vocals ala The Illegal Wiretaps come into
play.
From
there, we go from (in what I believe to all be the same song) comparisons to a
garbage disposal (That with the vacuum could make this housewarescore), Invader
Zim and an organ ala The Undertaker.
At this
point I believe that the strings have returned, but in actuality it is a
saxophone. This kind of turns into an
improv jazz bit, which is nice. The
song would seemingly end with some Gary Jules type piano, but after the
applause fades I can still hear the faint sound of what I can only imagine is a
cow mooing.
What
this cassette says to me is that people like noise. This is a live recording first off, so
people had to care enough about this band to buy their album first and then
demand a live release of that, so it must be a pretty big deal. And then just to hear the people clapping
and all after each song. It just goes to
show you that people were at this show and appreciate this band.
I might
not be able to name a single person (other than me) who likes noise or drone
music, yet oddly there does seem to be a following for it and perhaps if you
are musically diverse enough you can make your way into finding this niche
category that is just exemplified by the cassette tape.
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