
In 2005, Jamie Fennelly, Chris Forsyth, Shawn Edward Hansen and Chris Heenan recorded this pair of outstretched tracks in two different live settings in New York, their instrumentation comprising oscillators, bass drum, electronics, guitars, analog synthesizers and contrabass clarinet. This 200-copy limited edition, coming on CDR in a modest cardboard sleeve, is one of those precious, if hardly measurable emissions risking to be disregarded as a negligible instalment, which would be a disgrace. For sure, some of you already know what I’m talking about: electro-acoustic dismemberment of the Drone is the name of the game.
In “Get Out! You Mental Horsepill!” an alarming growl arises almost immediately, coarse textural disgorging and mucky restriction of dynamics relentlessly building a climax whose straining pressure is nearly insupportable. The feel is one of dissenting equipment, an emotionless mutiny, a cauldron of bad vibrations buried under unremitting apathy. Inexorably, distortion takes charge, although we can still identify a measure of harmonic substance; the instrumental vibe embodies the repudiation of physical progress, the cranium put into a virtual helmet of infected humming. The whole settles down a bit after 15 minutes or so, “respite” still being an unidentified word in this region.
The music of “Phantom Limb &, When Standing By Itself, Means And Bison” seems to adjust to the circumstance (Phill Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia festival), an extraordinary whirr consisting of amplified buzz, torpid synthesis and gurgling purr surrounding the listener step by step, once again contrasting the predisposition of the body to move. Feedback and wavering layers spawn a combination of unquietness and entrancement, merely troubled by Forsyth’s manipulations of his guitar’s parts. The piece’s curve recalls something recognizable but definitely undesirable - except for its vibrational content. The impressive parallelism of low-frequency resonances leading to the record’s completion is one of those moments of realization where no tangible notion is actually grasped, yet the beneficial consequence of that unawareness is worth a million words.
Phantom Limb & Bison deserves a proper reissue. Enough said.
~ Massimo Ricci
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Would be interested in hearing this.
I remember when Shawn had a college radio show before mine (in Kansas) and was getting into experimental/modern classical. At the time I had recently dove headfirst into the free jazz canon, so it was fun talking about our respective burgeoning interests in the avant-garde.