Phil Minton - A Doughnut in One Hand (FMP)

When I was a sophomore in high school, I fell in love with Lindsay Cooper’s Rags, in no small part due to the brash and impassioned singing of Phil Minton—he made those political songs come to life! Plowing through the used bins of a local record store in early 1988, I was thrilled to find a Minton solo album, A Doughnut in Both Hands—I think it was on Rift records. Those familiar with the album, now on Emanem, can imagine my reaction on getting it home. You know that one called “Wreath,” on which he chokes himself? I put it away for about ten years, and I was amazed at how great it was upon next listening.

Emanem is now releasing the third part of the Doughnut solo voice trilogy, so I figured I’d discuss the second, which is new to my collection. It’s even more diverse than Both Hands, displaying an even more stunning array of … what, extended vocal techniques? Does that overused phrase even begin to cover the imagination in evidence on every one of these miniatures?

I especially like the ones where Minton squeezes two or three notes out of his voice, as with “Ballad.” He produces spot-on fifths, the two pitch components blending in a voice larger than itself. Astonishingly, in “Tip Head,” he gets three pitches out simultaneously in something like a diminished chord.

None of this pedantry even comes close to describing the humor at ever turn; in “Ballad”’s second half, the profundo of the opening minute is imitated by what sounds like a little animal, one of Minton’s cat-fight voices put to different use. Here again, we revisit “Wreath” with even more liquid in evidence. Then, there is the master miniature “Universal Drainage,” a series of low-frequency burbles and rasps that threatens to become speech but never quite succeeds.

I have never heard a voice under better control; Minton has been engaging in myriad sound experiments for so long that it’s just part of who he is. Even in conversation, he’ll launch into any number of momentary sonic diversions. I have no idea what question I asked him, but I’ll never forget the sound he made while thinking about it: “Ooooooooooo …” If you hit the B two octaves below middle C, you’ll have it. These thirty moments have been some of the most fun I’ve had with a disc in a long time!

~ Marc Medwin