Formed
104
Supershells are a galactic phenomenon, enormous sheathes of hydrogen gas that surround one galaxy when it interacts with another. The music presented herein may not quite rise to that scope of activity but it’s a damn fine recording. Mueller and Kahn augment their percussive arsenal (largely metallic for this session, it seems) with cassette recorders and an analog synth, generating two sustained works that sound not unlike what one might experience at a Jason Lescalleet event. Both pieces are continuous, rich washes of sound, a blend of textures and volumes, rough to smooth, soft to loud, that interweave into waves that are always exciting and surprising. Gentle ticking erupts into hyper-deep bass flutter and feedback which feeds into a different, more outdoors-sounding metal-tapping. The second track feels even more expansive, concentrating on resonant throbs arcing out into space; near the end, beneath the welter of noise, there’s even a portion that sounds for all the world like a slab of Fennesz-ian guitar was stirred intothe brew. The album was recorded live in a Milwaukee gallery and here, as well as in the first piece, you get a nice sense of the extra-musical environment, some isolated sounds heard at a distance or, one imagines, echoing off gallery walls. It eliminates any sense of the hermetic and serves to enirich and amplify these excellent, percussive drones. When these fellows get cooking, and cook they do pretty much throughout, it’s a joy to hear. Good stuff.
Posted by Brian Olewnick on July 17, 2006 9:14 AMNice job, Brian. Sounds like a good one. Thanks.
Posted by: walto at July 18, 2006 4:27 AMI like the "Gentle ticking erupts into hyper-deep bass flutter and feedback which feeds into a different, more outdoors-sounding metal-tapping" part. But not as much as the "resonant throbs arcing out into space". How does one "arce", anyway?
Posted by: Clay Fink at July 19, 2006 6:09 AMHavent heard the Album
but ...the Artwork looks like such a parody of what it is supposed to look-sound-be like
maybe that s a good starting point for "something else"
n
Clay Fink: How does one "arce", anyway?
Me: First one has to find the arce - this may involve the use of both hands.
Universal Congress of?
Posted by: damon smith at July 19, 2006 1:03 PMd -
nice. always glad to see a reference to U.C.O. as they were a big favorite of mine in the late '80's and helped nurture my then-nascent interest in free jazz and whatnot from my perspective at the time in the underground rock world. Joe Baiza is one of my favorite guitarists to this day. Steve Moss' tenor playing was quite good too.
I met Jason way back then ('89) when they played a couple gigs here. Jason was the least chatty of the bunch, so his eventual path into so-called lowercase/silence makes perfect sense to me. Still, he was a damn fine drummer for that band. My buddy AP Gonzalez wound up getting asked to fill the drum spot for a couple tours and on the "11th Hour Shine-On" disc. I always thought that band had the potential for wide appeal without sacrificing good musical content, but it never quite happened. It's been a real drag to see so much bad funk/jam band music reach huge audiences when UCO was doing a lean, mean, post-punk (in terms of attitude, not noise content) interpretation of blues/r'n'b/Ornette/Meters type action with such class and style.
I'm not sure, but I think Baiza and Jason used to occasionally reconvene for European gigs. That might be some time back before Jason went more into this area of music.
Posted by: Rob Cambre at July 20, 2006 7:56 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................