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
Posts
