800 WILD! Ground Zero Mosque, Hunted Creatures, Inappropriate King Live, Pregnant Spore, The Charisma Carpenter

800 Wild is a diverse experimental/noise label run by Jake Lexso out of Pittsburgh, PA. Already this year there are nearly twenty releases and an ambitious schedule for the near future that includes works by Japanese noise god, K2, one of the originators of "Japanoise"; RJ Myato of the excellent U.S. label, No Nazi Noise; and more Ground Zero Mosque, etc. So, Lexso is making this a label to be heard on the merit of it's great and prolific releases. Jake sent me the following four cassettes:

THE CHARISMA CARPENTER (800 Wild #8) Take Your Life (2011) C-10

I'll begin with The Charisma Carpenter's "Take Your Life", a short tape that is, apparently, a reissue of an obscure release, circa 2003, by Triangle & Rhino's drummer, M. Rappa. The A side is made up of chaotically clashing electronics, a constantly moving, constantly evolving soundscape. This could be metaphorical of biochemical processes, environments that have their own logic, but are not understandable outside of that dimension. Under the carpet of always changing sounds are rhythmic constants that quite nearly bring solid structure to it, but are battered continually by a sonic terrorism that renders them ungraspable.

The B side is made up of conversations, many voices converging, placed in various environments, some close up and intimate, some group conversations and laughter, phone calls, phased snippets overheard. These phrases are poised against a rhythmic discourse made out of loops and delay-based repetitions. Correlating to the title of the cassette, it seems that The Charisma Carpenter has, indeed, taken sound recordings from his life and rearranged them into a cryptic, but extremely interesting experiment.

GROUND ZERO MOSQUE (800 Wild #9) Sustain Volume (2011) C-40

Jake Lexso's solo noise project is called Ground Zero Mosque. One of the things I love about cassettes are the surprises you encounter in the most humble of places. It seems as I looked at the quirky cover of this release, I wouldn't have expected such a remarkable work.

The first untitled composition begins with a low melodic humming sound, then joined by percussion, amped bass, or guitar (not so much played as hammered or plucked), synth squeals starting to whistle their way up through the mix, all sounds mixed sparingly, melding together as a prelude to some coming event, a downcast harbinger of things to come. More synthetics make their way into the mix, a lonely synth plays, now it becomes space rock gripped by troubled happenings. Then a maelstrom descends and all the sounds merge into one another, droning and distorting. Still, the percussive sounds are easily discerned as they bring the mix to several separate crescendos. The dynamics are superb, the ebb and flow between electric instruments, rhythms and synthetics are rich and varied. As the composition unfolds, synth flutes play a moving melody, all the dynamics fall away and it becomes gentle after it's upheavals, beautiful like Cluster, or Tangerine Dream.

The B side takes off from somewhere in the middle of the other track, not literally, but dynamics-wise. High pitched synth squealings provide a repetitive structure and sound like they could be created by controlled feedback. A huge bass drone emerges telling darker tales, the drone turns crackling and more high-pitched synthetics swirl in like machines performing rituals together. At times sounding not unlike the Eraserhead soundtrack, i.e. post-apocalyptic landscape analogy. There are so many varied sounds on this composition, but it is cohesive and, all in all, a brilliant exercise in abstract electronics.

This tape came across my desk without fanfare, and yet with a name like Ground Zero Mosque, there are direct correlations to ideas that are very timely, newsworthy even. But Jake Lexso stays away from dogma in his work and, rather, focuses on his interest in the possibilities of pure sound expression. Noisy, yes, but he's using the noise aspect as another part of the huge sphere of sounds at his disposal. These days, you don't expect such a picturesque experience from most noise albums, but this really is fantastic and will have you glued to your seat.

GROUND ZERO MOSQUE/INNAPROPRIATE KING LIVE/PREGNANT SPORE (800 Live #10) Split (2011) C-20

This tape, split between three artists, has Ground Zero Mosque's composition titled "The Legs Feed The Wolf" on the first side. Well recorded, great stereo separation, nice, hot dub here! The formidable rumbling and feedback are a warning that this will soon become very frightening. And it does!

Innapropriate King Live is the mysterious noise project of Justin Marc Lloyd from Baltimore, MD. Lloyd runs the prolific Rainbow Bridge label. This track, "Where Is The House Located", is a totally absorbing composition with sonics ranging from weird, distorted near-voices to what sounds like scraping glass and even higher pitched synth bells. Awesome!

Pregnant Spore is also a sound project by Justin Marc Lloyd. Although this track, "Purple Ice", is repetitious, akin to other HNW noise out there today, but it is very important to listen to this up close with volume. Then the fluxations in the composition are in full detail, with the track moving between high-pitched squalls, sub-bass drones and many other chattering noises. This over-amped track was likely created with feedback loops, but Lloyd's sonic palette is quite large and the origins of the sounds here are a mystery. Perhaps, in the end, this is not as well developed as the other tracks on the release, but an interesting addition nonetheless.

HUNTED CREATURES (800 Live #15) Self-Titled (2011) C-30

Hunted Creatures are a very special free-improv band, formerly the solo project of Ryan Emmett, now adding Amy Hoffmann, Darren Myers and Micah Pacileo to the equation. The crazy cover on this tape will surprise upon a closer look! This is improvisational electroacoustic noise. Violin, maybe cello, occupies the beginning stages alongside synthetic sounds and shortwave radio, which unfold over time. The structure is not dense at first, but the sounds are sort of placed across from one another, and posed in ways that create interesting juxtapositions. A synth filter opens and closes, perhaps too common in the language of synthesizer music, but soon plucked guitar patterns appear and are punctuated by noises rising to eventually become a sort-of lo-fi drone. All these elements come together, for me, in ways that are authentic and interesting.

Interest becomes fascination, however, on the B side of this tape. It utilizes a lot of the same types of sounds, but is a better, more coherent statement of cause. With a repeating melodic synth figure and strange behemoth sounds growling around the background, it begins both beautiful and strange. The melodic parts drop out and distort to become chirping and vocal snippets, which drop out to to now become environmental sounds. Chimes in the distance, extreme quietude, then a new pattern of textures slowly emerges. sounding like a street fair with wheezing accordion, segues into melodic guitar and fluxing electrons at the exteriors of the composition. Then all fades and you wait, maybe, this is another evolution, but it's now the end of the tape. This tape, to me, is a throwback to some of the United Dairies releases, or maybe some of the work by the Hafler Trio project.

An ofttimes beautiful release with improvisational approach leading to passages of real brilliance. The use of dynamics and space are very interesting, especially on the B side as the track winds down through all kinds of transformations towards silence. Highly recommended for experimental improv fans!
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For any of these releases please contact 800 Wild.

Cathartic Process: Bucketovsissors, Clew Of Theseus, Dajjal

CLEW OF THESEUS (Cathartic Process #CP32) Live, July 3, 2010 (2011) C60

The new Clew Of Theseus tape, titled "Live July 3, 2010", consists of three separate performances from the same day, in concert, at the Vesica Piscis Cathedral in Flagstaff, Arizona. My expectations were already high, given my familiarity with the mastermind behind this project, Ben Brucato, who has created an impressive discography over the last 15 years of brilliant noise and experimental sound works. Brucato is obsessive about the smallest details of his recordings, a very careful and discerning composer, setting his work apart from the slopmeister improv set who release every session they record. (there are arguments against and in favor of both of these ethics)

The A side is a 30 minute track simply titled "First Performance". Unfolding slowly, but with electric tension, this minimalist composition is made up of long, sinuous tones and strange, buzzing frequencies that drift through the wastes of a vast space. That space slowly becomes filled with a stern, but magisterial, sounding drone. This music, for me, has many metaphoric possibilities: the slow movement of time, shifts in tectonic plates, eons of existence/non-existence, generations swallowed up by generations. This is not a romantic, or nostalgic vision, nor is it cynical, there is no crescendo, yet the rising, falling and overlapping of tones contains an inherent accumulation of energy. At the end it feels like emerging from a time-portal to be in exactly the same place, but feeling profoundly elevated and refreshed. I rank this track up there with the very best ambient music that I have ever heard. Not to mention this could be performed by an orchestra with great results and hopefully, one day, will.

"Second Performance" begins the B side with some of the same characteristics as the first live set, a circular feel to the sound elements, a hovering effect, but the sounds are more distorted and grittier around the edges. This is a strong counter-piece to the earlier performance, at 12 minutes there are no lulls and Brucato is in complete control of his resources.

The bonus track, "Recorded During Sound Check", is the surprise of the tape, a really nice bonus for the listener, as Brucato takes on the ambient genre directly and with eloquence. Don't let it's humble soundcheck origins fool you, this is a composition that feels complete on it's own, it may be an edit, but doesn't sound like one. Here we have a really beautiful floating track that is without darkness, yet is compelling on it's own terms all the way through. The austerity and control maintained by the composer in the live execution of these sound structures, his peerless mastery of technique, are at once fascinating and insightful.

The fetishistic tape/vinyl underground culture has created a retro-worship of analog sound. But Clew Of Theseus, I think, deserves the ultimate hiss-free and stereophonically wide characteristics of digital sound. So it's too bad CD's don't sell any more! Fortunately, the tapes released on Brucato's label are the ultimate in cassette sound, I have never heard better dubs, very little in the way of hiss, and able to contain all frequencies without overloading, or compressing. Amazing!

DAJJAL (Cathartic Process #CP30) De-Evolution in Simulation Generators (2011) C90

The new "De-Evolution In Simulation Generators" by Dajjal, on Cathartic Process, is a ridiculously great tape! First thing I notice is the superb sound. One thing I will say about tapes on Cathartic, they have the most amazing sound quality I think I've ever heard: virtually no tape hiss, little compression and no bleed-through! Really beautiful dubs. So who is the mysterious Dajjal? Whoever he/she is, they've created a throwback, in a sense, to early industrial noise, and have really come up with something to be feared on this release. This is the aural equivalent to being one of the human guinea pigs in "Rubber's Lover", subjected to intense and unbearable sound frequencies! Fucked by noise, basically. An extraordinary and imaginative release, it's hard to believe this was recorded live to cassette, what a feat at ninety minutes! Just one more reason to believe that the youth of the noise generation have fantastic possibilities, that the noise scene is not stale or running out of creative steam. There are no cliches on this release. Take my word for it, this is better than almost anything else out there, a must-have. Highly recommended!

CLEW OF THESEUS/BUCKETOVSISSORS (Cathartic Process #CP21) Split (2011) C40

Also released on Cathartic in 2011, the Clew Of Theseus/Buckettovsissors Split cassette. Each artist has composed two tracks for this project and, though they are not thematically related, there is a cohesive quality to the album that I really enjoyed.

I think I understand now what Ben Brucato, with Clew Of Theseus, is trying to do in his work. His sound paintings are becoming deeper meditations, more possibly religious even. But he is painting, and these paintings have a solemnity, a humble quality, yet they are also monumental. In a way, it's like the landscape of Arizona, where he lives, wind-licked, ancient landscapes that have quietly survived the harshest conditions, while passing overhead are skies of the most beautiful colors... I feel more and more his sound-world does reflect the experience of living there. I don't think this is uncommon for artists who have lived in Arizona, as I think that even my friends, Jeph Jerman and Adam Mokan, have found their music altered by that profound landscape.

The first track here is a really beautiful rising and falling ambient drone composition. Many frequencies of sound passing through the spectrum. The splice at the point where tracks one and two meet will make you jump out of your seat! But we're immediately in a darker place then. Bass frequency looming there below as an array of sonic colors pass over and build ever changing surfaces, each part of the composition always moving but without a strong forward push, so more of a hovering, buzzing, or in my estimation, "painterly" effect. The side ends in thundershower sounds, a direct reference again to that Arizona landscape, and the rain dissipates after some time creating a perfect ending to a really great set of works.

German experimental artist, Theo Goodman, aka Bucketovsissors, has been active since the early 2000's, not prolific, but doing some very interesting soundwork in that time. I have to say it's a great pairing here, and thank goodness, as split tapes should at least sometimes sound thoughtfully curated. Bucketovsissors provides the more psychologically dark side to this tape, creating a blown-out, futuristic urban landscape. Whatever Goodman is using to create his sounds: synths, field recordings, turntables, one can only speculate, but what he achieves in this music is really interesting, a world of machines in control, listened to in a certain frame even the titles then could be said to be satirical through those eyes. "The Enlightened Man" has finally "found himself" at a time where he can do least in response to his enlightenment, therefore it's still a world of alienation, helplessness, slavery-and that is exactly how this music sounds. Excellent metaphorical noise!

Get these brilliant releases at Cathartic Process. The online catalog is HERE.