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April 12th, 2006 by Jonathan Fletcher (Permalink)
Label: Dekorder Year: 2006 Add Comments |
Black to Comm is the solo project of Dekorder label boss Marc Richter and occupies a playfully eerie space with a mixture of vinyl loops, microphone, voice and kitchen gamelan. ‘Bees’ begins with just that- a field recording of our honey-producing friends. Their peaceful meander becomes subsumed to a more disconcerting noise as human voice start to emulate bee, resembling no less than Teiji Ito’s incredible score to Mata Deren’s ‘Meshes in the Afternoon’. This Deleuzian line of flight (sorry but it had to be done) paves the way forward for a wayward, unpredictable but nonetheless involving and innovative long player.
‘Levitation’ is a queasy sound mix- crackling vinyl, a woozy loop, a liberal buried piano/ keyboard tinkling and, high in the soundfield, shards of backwards noise. There is a sudden change as the soundscape becomes warmer and fluttering nature comes to prominence as yet more queasy textures lurk in the background. The overall effect is so stunningly strange- leaving the listener pleasantly dazed and confused as if you were lying in a field with the sun’s rays stopping you from getting up and taking shelter.
‘Laccifer Lacca’ treats us to a multitude of varying voices, looped and deeply reverberating along with children at play. The loop takes on an almost b-movie style prominence as a dirty and amplified grunge bass counterpoints the increasingly hysterical tractor beam of vocals all abruptly faltering to the sound of a small demented choir of non-children.
The title track sounds like Nico’s ‘Marble Index’ produced by William Basinski instead of John Cale with vague traces of glockenspiel becoming increasingly carnival-like, wandering behind decaying hiss. Special mention must also go to the accelerator tones and military rigour of ‘March of the Vivian Girls’ which slowly build to a collapse of trebly noise.
The whole thing weighs in at around 35 minutes but there is so much depth, warmth and weirdness that this will just keep pulling you back for more. What with this and Dictaphone’s ‘Vertigo II’, electronica is enjoying a stupidly rich month. Grab this, take the phone off the hook, whack up loud and buy yourself and your living room a ticket to a strange place.
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