MIGUEL A. GARCIA / AUGUST TRAEGER "Absquatulate Azimuth" C30 (Bicephalic Records)

Milwaukee’s Bicephalic Records knows their noise! Here’s a great pairing of two primarily atonal ambient artists exploring the edges of sonority and rhythm, each in innovative, distinct ways.

On side A, Southern Spain’s Miguel A. Garcia isolates and curates the overtone-rich sounds of heavy machinery, industrial wire, and walkee-talkee interference, posing each for and against the other through expert timbre augmentation.

On Side B, Wisconson’s own BR label head, August Traeger, weaves organically harvested reverb with intimate, meek textures and subtle haunting drones for a disassociative mantra, then proceeds to turn the world on its head, taking the previous 25 minutes of themes on this tape, digitally electrocutes and syncopates them into a clumsy robot elephant dance while the crowd looks on in bemused horror.

Pretty great stuff! This is one of four splits Bicephalic has put out and I’m looking forward to spending more time with the others now!

https://bicephalicrecords.bandcamp.com/album/absquatulate-azimuth
http://bicephalic.net
http://www.xedh.org/
http://somnaphon.bandcamp.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

Dog Hallucination / Ichtyor Tides “Vergier Begets” C30 (Bicephalic Records)

You’ll remember my first ever review of Holy Hills’ self-titled album (http://bit.ly/1Up0GJF). I was critical of their supposedly “experimental” tape and how it lacked any “experimental” content whatsoever. I bring up this review because I heard dangerously similar tones in the first track of “vergier begets”: malaise 1-4 by Dog Hallucination.

Dog Hallucination was slightly reminiscent of that traumatic Holy Hills tape in that it lacked the melodious overtones that most of today’s modern pop hits have. That’s not to say it lacked rhythm altogether, however. The tape opens with a dulcet binary-esque tune that drops to a grisly strain, which truly does have a dearth of cadence. This second coming evolves into pealing and equally rhythmless (yet admittedly slightly intriguing) slack. It was this tune’s evolution into the final little ditty that I realized something: the reason I couldn’t find myself so horrendously bored while listening to this track was not only because it possessed euphonious fluctuation (something Holy Hills desperately needs in its tracks) but also because during the entirety of the time I listened to that side, I ideated literal dog hallucinations. This track may truly contain the malaisical sounds that a dog suffering from cataplexy may hear. And for this reason my rating immediately went from a 4/10 to a 7/10. Good naming reaps good ratings. Words to live by.

The second side/track was labeled Deimonstritus by Ichtyor Tides. I looked into the meaning or origins of the word “Deimonstritus" (hoping to exact this newfound track-naming tip I discovered upon this side), but Google either failed me or the word was invented. Maybe the track name is as experimental as the song it titles. In any case I popped the tape into my boombox and gave it a listen. If you didn’t like the Buggles you won’t like this track, let me tell you know. The synth is heavy with this one. I personally am a big fan of the synth noise, and the silvery sounds organized on this track engendered a surprisingly decent listen, especially for an experimental track. Even so it’s not good as anything except background music, like really any experimental track (let’s be candid here). I rate it a 6/10, points were taken for repetitiveness.

As an aggregate I rate this album a 6.5/10.

https://bicephalicrecords.bandcamp.com/album/vergier-begets
http://doghallucination.bandcamp.com/
http://aubjects.wordpress.com/
http://petriblog.wordpress.com/
http://www.bicephalic.net/
https://www.facebook.com/Bicephalic-Records/

—M. Syed

AMALGAMATED / ODD PERSON"Anthropometric ixil"(Bicephalic Records)

This split tape (limited edition of 50) offers Amalgamated on one side and Odd Person on the flip. Pressing play welcomed me to "bending the last blind leg", which consumes the entire Amalgamated side. My initial impression of Yoko Ono fronting The Beatles hodgepodge track "Revolution No. 9" held firm throughout with a barrage of whimpers and sound effects done in a more interesting way than perhaps I've suggested by comparison.

As it turns out, Amalgamated is a collective (4-5 members) of experimental artists who record live performance and then edit and "post-process" to create what we have here. An interesting and imaginative electronic based effort that I found stimulating enough to warrant listens to future works.

The reverse is titled "nebaj.cotzal.chajul" by the mysterious Odd Person of which I came up empty handed in my attempts to further identify the artist(s). The performance consists of rhythmic patterns akin to taping on a live microphone (sound check?) that graduate to increasing repetitions and then transform into buzzing noises, all while maintaining some sense of pattern. Like the Amalgamated side, it is done in an intriguing manner. Unlike side A, however, I don't need to ever hear this again.

The tape is release number nineteen on this experimental music label and purports to be the first of eight releases featuring these two artists. I would recommend it solely for the Amalgamated side to those inclined toward this type of art/music.

www.bicephalic.net

-Bob Zilli

FAINT GLOW / SOMNAPHON “absolute (0) embrace” (Bicephalic Records)

In the day and age of a generation gone astray on wild concepts such as ‘Netflix and chill’, thankfully we still have some people who prefer ‘spooky dark ambient and j card photo of outer space’. This split tape between Faint Glow and Somnaphon will appease the later and cause the former to shit their pants…assuming they were still wearing them. 

Both acts give roughly 15 minutes of terse, unforgiving soundscapes a piece. On side A I found myself immersed in the vortex of Faint Glow’s “Inside A Red Storm” to the point where I could almost feel the wind hitting me. By the end of those tracks I was floored. Somnaphon didn’t let me off the hook after I flipped the tape over. The humming of an impending doom on “Wasp Star” had me looking over my shoulder. Sometimes split releases are plagued by one side that totally outclasses the other. I am happy to report that is not the case here. Now may the word “happy” never again be used to describe either of these acts. Check it out in the link below.

Stream + Buy: https://bicephalicrecords.bandcamp.com/album/absolute-0-embrace

-- Roy Blumenfeld

WORLD OF WHITE ICE/NIPPLE STOOLS “Wimp Abilities Sluice” C30 (Bicephalic Records)

The WoWI half of this rad Mid-Western Noisecraft makes great use collaging processed field recordings with electro-acoustic feedback loops on two of the tracks, with a nice long exploration of (from what I counted) 5 distinct modular synthesizers carrying on like they were haunting a mansion or something. Maybe the first track was a trip through the yard and the last one, the acceptance of an early death? Nothing so dark, but with the infinitude of nothingness in spades.

Nipple Stools sounds something right out of the freeform synth Orange Milk catalog, with plenty of butchered field recording textures and Pauline Oliveros bleeps and bloops in constant variation to never get quite comfortable with even thinking about rhyme or reason or recognizable symbols. No, it ain’t for everybody, but I sure as shit digs it! Listen with headphones.

http://bicephalicrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wimp-abilities-sluice

and/or

www.bicephalic.net

- - Jacob An Kittenplan