Friday, 26 February 2010

Plurals/Timothy C Holehouse - Live split



Artist Plurals/Timothy C Holehouse
Label None
Year 2009
Genre(s) Drone, Noise, Power Electronics

Both artists deliver a live cut recorded in Brighton, November 2008. The tape comes with a train ticket (I'm not sure if this is every copy or not) and a fold out insert listing the artists, their tracks and containing pictures relating to the performances captured within (Above).

Plurals open their track, Midnight Cock Pie, with a warm drone, slowly growing in scope and intensity. Overtaking the listener like a wave. More and more high end is interjected into the mix, possible percussion lurking in the background. What sound like vocals enter the fray, becoming part of the sonic textures. Almost shamanic and used as part of the music, reminiscent of shoegaze styles. Voices offering up lullabies to soothe weary travelers. Subtle chimes augment the calming drones as they begin to morph into a slightly harsher variant, the vocals becoming more profound. At this point the music begins to take a darker edge, spacey sounds merge seamlessly into the miasma whilst the overall piece still maintains a very organic feeling. A million different atmospheres are gelled together perfectly in this live set and it's a pleasure to listen to. This is wonderful stuff, psychedelic and soothing.

The Timothy C Holehouse side, titled A New Dichotomy of Hate... That Tastes Great opens with chanting, which the audience become part of. The chanting is looped and delayed before fading into a dark drone with whispered vocals, at times quite close to Power Electronics, make no mistake about it where the vocals on Plurals side offered a psychedelic element the vocals on TCM's side are unnerving. Buzzing, dirty electronics rise up from the depths. Crashes and damaged beats hover over the buzz, starting out spacious but slowly coming together allowing less and less breathing space, ever teasing at a full out sonic assault. A fantastic mixture of high and low end and a lot harsher than that which came before.To simply call this noise would be a massive disservice to the artist, we're treated to a fucked up (in the best possible sense) mixture of psychedelia, power electronics, drone and harsh noise. Angry shouts in the background in a call and response style. Some almost Masonna esq sound manipulation leaping into your face. There are so many styles at play on this release that it's impossible to cover them all but each supports the others. This is what noise should be, ever changing and refusing to be confined to one specific sound.

This release really shows the best of both artists, all the stronger for their conflict of styles whilst both working within the over-arching genre of "noise". Plurals and Timothy C Holehouse offer two completely different kinds of psychedelic noise, catering to fans of both drone and the more harsh outputs.