Daniel Menche | Hover
As far as I know Daniel Menche started out in the Noise scene of the 90s as one of those guys that would be on a comp with Merzbow and I’m not saying they were all doing the same thing but it was hard to tell any of it apart the first few hundred listens. He eventually evolved into a more unique manipulator of sound, working with layers of field recordings and different types of sounds, not just shrieking feedback of overdriven amps. (Altho I believe he still does something like that live, because, why not, it’s fun. Haven’t got the chance yet myself to see it but he used to blog a lot which is how I got back into him.)
Here he applies his layering edit technique to a choir of school children instructed to sing nonsense syllables at various pitches. The two tracks are the actual piece, which sounds like a something between chanting and a vast swarm of insects, and the raw recording of the kids. After an initial listen where it acts almost as a punchline or just a behind the scenes bonus track, I recommend listening to the second track first. Then it’s like a setup of this thing that seems very simple and a little silly into an insane trance-inducing fever dream of ego-ingulfing chaos. You’re going to want to try this on some good speakers you can crank up; I haven’t really messed with it too much, but I tried just having this on the ipod for walking around music and that is not such a good idea. I mean it’s a cool effect on headphones, maybe if you’ve got a beanbag chair or something try that out. But it’s a little disorienting is what I’m saying. Unlike some Noise records, it’s not going to blow up your stereo or melt your eardrums, but still, use with caution.
This is a download only release. I think his only one. You can get all his stuff on his personal bandcamp now but every other record has been put on vinyl or CD on various labels. I used to think of Noise records as conceptual art objects, like if you only downloaded them you weren’t even really “getting” it. I think it’s more true of some than others now. Like it was a statement, man. I only got $10 in my pocket, I can buy the new Pavement (used, of course) or some random Metal band no one cares about because it’s the mid 90s or I can buy this…thing that doesn’t even have anything like a song on it. I don’t think it’s really the same feeling you get from torrenting the Merzbox, making that choice. But maybe that’s just me. Certainly the Menche records you can get into the sound alone. This is probably a good one to start with.
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Trail of Dead | So Divided
Before I saw this band a couple weeks ago at Maxwell’s, I had only heard their one record Source Codes & Tags from 2002. After I bought the ticket online, I figured I should listen to it a little. I mean I had listened to it but not in years. Why go to that show then? Just seemed like the kind of show I would see at Maxwell’s; a semi-obscure new(ish) band I wasn’t even sure I liked. I’ve just never been into seeing the same few bands over and over, that was not really my scene. I’ll miss it the same but let’s keep moving in the direction of new bands, right. Anyway, turns out I no longer had a copy of any of their albums. I must have deleted the folder one day sorting things and I just couldn’t get over the full name of the band messing up my alphabetization. (The same fate has befallen “!!!”.) I guess I didn’t feel they were good enough to make an exception and I didn’t think of just using the shorter version. This was during my drinking period when I just made these kind of decisions easily. I got angry that they had this outlandish name and yet somehow did not really back it up on record. Wasn’t the hype with this band how crazy they were live? I made a mental note to just see them live one day because I was not getting it. The record is not crazy enough.
This record is much, much less crazy. Now that I have seen them live, I get the hype. Ten years later, they must have mellowed out a little as no one in the band went to the hospital that night, which was supposedly a regular occurrence in the past. I can only imagine what they were like then, but it was still pretty great. Super high-energy, noisy guitars, switching out of instruments, leaving the stage with extended guitar solos in the middle of the pit, it was like anything could happen. They even had multiple problems with the sound cutting out on the PA and various amps and it didn’t even slow them down. With no intention of doing so, I got really into it. More than any other Maxwell’s show I think. It was not even like going back to a typical early 00s show for me, it was like a 90s show with a full pogo-skank mosh thing going on.
A couple days later I got my paycheck so I thought of buying a Maxwell’s shirt online since I didn’t have any money at the show for one. (Didn’t even get a last meal or beer there, had barely enough to even get there. Sucks but what can you do. I was glad to go at all.) Then I thought that was dumb. I’m not carrying the torch for this place that’s voluntarily gone under, lemme actually buy this band’s records instead. That’s what I’m supporting. Stick to yr guns, man.
So…I figure I almost can’t go wrong here with albums. I pick this one because the cover is so weird it doesn’t seem to match what the band is about at all, looks like a CGI anime soundtrack. Yeah, the sound of the record doesn’t seem to match what the band is about at all either. Doesn’t quite sound literately like an anime soundtrack, but doesn’t sound like the band I just saw. This is kinda interesting actually, to me, and I don’t hate it. I just don’t get it. Like there’s so many keyboards and layered harmonies. I don’t expect a band to sound exactly like a record, like I don’t think you should hold back on a record just because you’re not going to able to replicate whatever exactly. But live they have no keys of any kind and mostly yell everything. Not terribly, but nothing remotely smooth or Beatle-esqe like on this thing. I think the title track has some representative moments that really capture the band, but no one has posted that anywhere. Here’s the single from this album:
Pretty decent to me. Not anything like them but it’s a good tune. Ends with what might be a rousing audience sing along if they ever played it live which they do not of course. Because live they do not have acoustic guitars and keyboards and six bongo players. And an accordion. One of the opening bands at that show, The Red Paintings, actually had an accordion player and a violin player. This just seemed random and weird at the time, but I would have seen it as an awful tease if I knew. (Also the band Ume played who are like noisy-period Blonde Redhead, which I like. Did I mention there were girls at this show? Much higher percentage than an average metal show. That was nice.)
Anyway, I like the album, but I think this type material should be under a different name tho, it’s more like a side project of the singer(s). And again, the name of the band is goddamn ridiculous so how could they even think of crossing over? No one is going for that.
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