RICHARD FRANCIS / ANTHONY GUERRA / MATTIN / JOEL STERN
Richard Francis / Anthony Guerra / Mattin / Joel Stern
(CMR - CMR13) 7-inch $10.00
Two five-minute cuts excerpted from about three hours of material recorded in 2004. Computer, electronics, field recordings, electric guitar, computer feedback. Edition of 250
Wormwood
(Groundfault) Used CD $5.00
“The clicking, clattering, and scraping opens up a subterranean, microscopic world of incredible mystery,” says Stylus, “By turns metallic, organic, electronic, and simply unidentifiable, and the cumulative effect of all these insectile clicks and theremin-like whines akin to the first men confronting the massive nuclear-fueled ants from the cult horror classic Them. Northam and Stern’s sounds are towering, intimidating … but there is still something intimate and small-scale in this music that contrasts with its sometimes overwhelming aura…. This is an atmosphere record that truly infects and infiltrates the natural ambience of anywhere it happens to be playing. Played quietly enough, Wormwood's sounds hover sinisterly just on the edges of perception, poisonous fumes hanging invisibly (but fatally) in the air. With slightly more volume behind it, however, the album becomes oppressively dense; the music is all sharp edges and tiny charged particles, vibrating, electrified, buzzing with energized static that seems to crackle off the end of each sound pulse.” Sealed