Monday, November 10, 2014

Cassette Review: Woodger Speece / Thierry Burnhout "14 rhythms for Jamilla / This beehive state [split tape]" (Tanuki Records)


[£3 // Edition of 60 // https://tanukirecords.bandcamp.com/album/14-rhythms-for-jamilla-this-beehive-state-split-tape]

As this indicates per the title it is a split tape which means that it is Woodger Speece on Side A and Thierry Burnhout taking over Side B.   I could definitely imagine these two artists collaborating at some point, sure, but that's not what this cassette is.

We begin with crackling static glitch and then the sound of scratching balloons mixed with the lasers of R2D2.   This all turns into electro beats and drum machine loops which kind of remind me of "Head Like a Hole" but only in the slightest sense.    Sharp lasers come out next and bring us into the realm of the Wookee Transformers (It could be a thing) and then some weird skipping type of beats.   I become lost, intranced in the sounds and I'm not sure why until I realize perhaps I am being hypnotized by what sounds like the ticking of a clock.

Now when I first put this on I didn't pay any attention to the notes as to whether it was a collaboration or split (Though I should have) and I thought that maybe Side B was left blank because it took so long to get going.    There are these little clicks and I'm not sure whether they are supposed to be there or are just a part of the cassette show but they finally build into som wavy whirrs and this is very quietly minimal.   There are waves and tones that are kind of like "Psycho" only without the stabbing effect.    It's chopped and towards the end somehow reminds me of an old furnace.   Most of this is a reflection on peeling back layers to discover new ones, but that can really be said about either side.

I wouldn't really say that Speece presents himself in a way that's in your face, but the sounds are much more closer to the surface and you can easily hear them and begin to identify them.    Burnhout seems to be the sounds in between that space, the noises which fill that void and as such they compliment each other so well this becomes a true work of art.




No comments:

Post a Comment