Michiel de Haan/Marc Spruit - Radical Improvisations

CDR

The title of the disc, “Radical Improvisations” overreaches a tad as the music herein isn’t all that extreme, but it’s not bad either. The impression from the first three tracks is a variant of the sort of thing Otomo Yoshihide and Martin Tetreault were engaged in a few years ago—rapid-fire exchanges employing brief bursts of turntable noise and guitarisms. Here it’s de Haan on the guitar and Spruit manning the turntable, spitting out the sounds. Maybe less spitting than excitedly sputtering here, the explosions emerging so quickly that you imagine a puncture in some high-pressure mechanism. It’s an impressive enough display, though I question how much musical consideration is occurring at the expense of pure, visceral movement. Happily, beginning on the fourth cut, the duo shows they’re capable of more, lowering the heat and developing a more substantial dialogue, taking greater care in building a structure as well as expanding their palette and using silences. If anything, that piece, “Take 37” (all tracks are similarly titled) recalls some of the better tape collage work of the 70s—good stuff.

The following piece, “Take 38”, occupies similar territory and is once again quite solid and enjoyable. The remainder of the nine pieces in this short (a bit over 30 minutes) disc more or less combine these attacks, eventually drifting back toward the excitable and frenetic. This latter “style” isn’t a particular favorite of mine but I can say that de Haan and Spruit accomplish such an approach with competence and focus, especially with regard to clarity of sound; each element is jaggedly edged and etched with extraordinary precision. de Haan’s guitar is only occasionally recognizable as such and the general impression one gets is more of a dual turntable outing. Given that, fans of extreme turntablism will find a huge amount to enjoy here. You can get a taste by visiting their myspace page here. In fact, I had a good time simultaneously playing the sounds at the site with the disc.