Maurizio Bianchi/Maor Appelbaum - Environmental Meditations

Topheth Prophet
TP009

The titles of the six tracks in this industrial drone-scape have neurological connotations as does, I think, the booklet inscription which, as a service to potential consumers, I shall reprint in its entirety:

The hydrocephalic meditation comes from discriminatory incoherences in the minimized environment of mediatic insubstantiality. This work provides profitable logicality to the futuristic aversions, subjecting the deprecated brains marketing to an elitist unpretentiousness.

Point taken.

It’s tempting to listen to the sounds here as a kind of Fantastic Voyage through dendritic cells, riding electric charges as they leap across synaptic gaps on their way to becoming thought processes. The first cut, appropriately enough titled “Synapse”, is not ineffective at all in conveying that sort of mind-trip—a heady, burrowing drone that channels its noise in a steady stream for some twelve minutes, and does so well with a sense of expectant exploration. “Thalamus”, that deep-brain area thought to control many of the more basic human instincts such as sleep, skitters around a bit more, roller-coastering around in a manner more suited to a fitful nightmare than peaceful rest, though it ends somewhat indecisively, with not too much accomplished. Ascending to the “Mesencephalon”, the texture becomes hollower and a slight bit more metallic, fluctuating from more full to shriller. The steady-statedness of this and a few of the other pieces runs somewhat thin, however; there’s just not enough going on to maintain active interest, reading something like a lesser Francisco Lopez effort. Perhaps, as with much Lopez, it would work far better as an immersive live experience than on disc.

Things kind of unravel from this point on. The elements making up “Dendrite” are a bit clichéd—ratcheting whorls with a sci-fi edge—and they’re deployed in standard rhythms that quickly pall. “Amygdala” uses more bracingly harsh sounds, a good thing, but to oddly lackluster effect, shifting the pitch up and down in an aggravatingly arbitrary manner. Exiting via the “Hypothalamus”, we’re once again surrounded by smooth, staticky sounds that are engaging enough at first glimmer but then just sit there, milling around in desultory fashion. Much more neuro-cognitive oomph needed here.

Industrial drone fans might find enough to make it worth their while, but I wanted to hear a bit more urgent, tough-minded activity occurring during this set of meditations.

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