Hearing Michael Potter do the next obvious
thing in his repertoire – a noise/no wave sludge-coction under his “Serrater”
guise – is music to my ears. No wait, actually, it’s more like damaging waves
of tone and feedback to my ears, which causes the eardrums within them to
vibrate uncontrollably and cause blood to leak and seep out and get everywhere.
Two tracks he does on this split, TWO! “America the Grave” and “Shed Dead Flesh”
are noise in intent and execution, but this isn’t a dude who’s just creating
hellish feedback loops. He’s obviously got guitars and even drums in here, but
sure, I guess he is also feeding everything back like crazy. He’s awesome at
somehow corralling this craziness, sculpting these vicious frequencies, whether
low or high, into sonic weapons. No, not music to my ears – more like missiles
to them. I’m probably hearing the aftermath of that inside my head.
The Butoh Sonics collective recorded “Spinning
Fiend Who Feeds Off Vertigo” live two years ago at Operation Noise Toaster 17
in Phoenix. It’s an electroacoustic/electronic nightmare, layered with
traditional instruments and nontraditional, like guitar, but also propane
tanks. Also someone is doing Butoh, the form of Japanese dance theater from which
the quartet takes its name. “Spinning Fiend” sounds like antigravity crinkling
space-time, causing tension in the proto-building blocks of existence. They do
this for forty mesmerizing minutes, every one of them filled with feedback and
icky loops, plucks and synth pings, desperate for equilibrium but never quite
managing it. It’s dense and off kilter, and riveting when it gets itself under
your skin. Which it does quickly.
https://michaelpotter.bandcamp.com/
https://butohsonics.bandcamp.com/
https://orbtapes.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan