Coagulation
(Auscultare Research) CD $10.50
Selected action-concrète noise from 1996 to 2000 (with guest appearances by Kazumoto Endo (Killer Bug) that’ll prep you for a body bag better than just about anything shy of a 150-pound meat tenderizer with your name on it. Coated with electronic rawness, Coagulation combines belligerent noisician-gone-wild screech with micro-crustaceous nastiness. Go ahead and jump.
Edit For Unconscious
(Auscultare Research) Used Split CD $3.00
“Arford’s ‘Drift Counter’ is a white wash of buzzer noise and open mic sizzle,” says Igloo Magazine. “At about 23 minutes the isolated energy of the mower-like sonics freeze the subconscious for a moment and stir-fry it back up again…. Drops of threatening noise taunt in Yau’s ‘Second Coming,’ like a griddling of some type of hovering being that gets caught in the radiant glow of drone. The track climaxes to a gas-like explosion which melts all in its course to the din of reverberation. Edit for Unconsciousness also includes Arford’s barely grounded ‘Headworms,’ originally released as part of a split mini-CD with the Haters. The piece has a molten core slow-roasting all in/outputs. Yau’s ‘Realia’ opens this recording with a quick cut-up-cum-slow-perk approach. Its mild side is nothing if not an eerie message from a force outside of our realm. Suddenly the plug is pulled and wavers out in slow motion. The drama invigorates and has the ability to give you the shakes.” From 2001
Illusion is a Natural Condition
(Auscultare Research) CD $10.50 (Out-of-stock)
The long anticipated collection of Dave Phillips and R.H.Y. Yau collaborations culled between 2000-2005. Phillips began his musical career when he was 17, co-founding the hardcore extremists Fear of God in 1987, whose increasingly faster, shorter, and noisier approaches to grindcore Philips realized were merely a springboard for more psychologically challenging and physically demanding artforms. Soon after Fear of God’s demise in 1989, he joined the actionist Schimpfluch-Gruppe which has followed the traditions of abjection and transgression as dictated by the Viennese Aktionists. Phillips has further developed these transgressions along with sociopolitical actionism in his solo efforts. Yau is a curator and sound artist who has been active in the sonic arts since 1993; his works are inspired by sound poetry, actionism, and the processes of musique concrète. Bored by academic cliques, Yau creates what he calls “action-concrète” -- organic synapses of voice, body, and raw materiality combined with raw electronics into sound experiences of both ultra-violence and absolute absurdity at the most base level. With ten lithographic reproductions of original drawings by Leif Elggren.
The Hidden Tongue
(Groundfault) Used CD $3.00
Eight collages, varying in tone and dynamic. “A long, minimal, whispery drone will suddenly be followed up with machinery sounds or a sliced-up section of sample. More aggressive than John Watermann’s work (which is the obvious comparison), but at the same time not as thick….Most of the noises and samples are unidentifiable, ranging from miniscule snatches of conversation to pipes being dragged across knurled metal to harshly-distorted drum machine like noise.”