THE COUNCIL OF EYE FORMS
“The Council of Eye Forms” C26
(Very Special Recordings)




I think it’s a brazen attitude that allows two likeminded experimentalists not to “give a rip” (to use a term perfected by my old youth leader) about what you think or about what I think, or even about what reviewers in general think. We don’t matter. We’re not in the same “headspace,” man, and the moments of connection, so important to the musicians making their racket, are impenetrable to the untrained ear. At least that’s what every stupid person tells themselves.

Me? I’m not stupid. Are you stupid? You’re reading this, aren’t you? Benefit of the doubt then. Because what The Council of Eye Forms, a duo comprised of Brooklyn’s Jon Lipscomb and Sweden’s Alexandra Costin, pull from their instruments is a headspace, and it’s one you have to fully immerse yourself in to appreciate to the fullest. Because they, as suggested in paragraph number one, don’t “give a rip” about the outside influences – the ambience of their surroundings, the people watching Seinfeld in the adjacent room, the incessant construction noises from outside.

So there are two tracks here, one on side A called “Planet Earth” (or, sadly, “Planet Earh” on the j-card because proofreading?), a chiming, noodly confection that dissipates into ambience, and “9th Degree Secret on the B-side, a distorted megalith of intensity. The press says it best when influences such as Sonic Youth (the weird EPs, not regular Sonic Youth), Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, and Caspar Brötzmann are whispered reverently behind barely ajar doors in abandoned hallways. Why abandoned hallways? Because that’s where the best sonics are, you idiot. See? It’s an attitude thing. You don’t have the right one.




--Ryan Masteller