CRANK STURGEON / MATT LUCZAK “Crank Sturgeon / Matt Luczak Split” C23 (Orb Tapes)


That misfit Crank Sturgeon is at it again, this time bringing his mangled performance noise to Orb Tapes, where he totally belongs. Crank Sturgeon’s on side A. The B-side is offered up (like a ritual sacrifice) to Matt Luczak, who has “saved pretty much every loop [he’s] ever made.” That’s impressive! And lucky for us, we get them ALL here, “spliced together in a non-looping, linear track.” Yes, Matt, we WILL enjoy!

Crank-master S bloodies our noses with “A Stevening Teethe (Eating Leaves),” a frequency blast of industrial hum and agitation mixed with smeared-into-the-pavement voices that pulsates in vibrational patterns that leave you feeling like you were hearing them from the inside of an old-timey diving helmet. But here’s guessing that you’re not wearing one of those; still, imagine sentient static hollowing out the trunk of an oak tree that’s grown straight through the middle of your head, and maybe you get the idea. You’ve been chewing on the leaves for sustenance anyway, haven’t you? That’s all there is, crunching dumbly in your ever-moving goat-mouth. I’m not real pleased with you right now, you know. That’s why Crank Sturgeon’s doing this. He owes me a favor.

Matt Luczak might owe us all a favor, that’s all I can come up with for this weirdly generous and generously weird compilation of freakish loops. I mean, “Salvaged Loops” (cute!) is all over the place – I can’t even begin to describe them or document the building blocks really, although that does seem to be my job at the moment as music writer guy. There’s a lot of noisy blurts and shredded rhythms (in fact, dropping in at a random point on the track usually seems to suggest sculpted mic feedback), but there’s also a lot of surprise moments, like vocal tics, techno asides, blinking computer functionality, smudged ballroom dancing lessons, and random radio spins. It’s a wild ride from start to finish, because there’s really no way to predict any of the madness. You go, Matt!




--Ryan