A Brittle Substance (Collaboration Dedicated To Walter C McCrone)

33 releases. Bloody hell. I’ll think that again. Bloody hell. In fact I’ll add a swear word in there just to emphasise the point. Bloody fucking hell. I can’t believe that the Roil Noise record label has got to this amount so quickly. Talk about productive. A factory churning out music for the more discerning music aficionado out there. Roil Noise never fails to confound expectations. A label you take for granted at your peril. For every act on their ever expanding roster puts out music that creeps up and shouts ‘BOO’ in your ear. As is the case with Ctephin. The last recording I reviewed from this combo was their split release with Big City Orchestra [read review here]. Oh how I admired their blissful tracks. I wrote (and I quote) ‘Dreamscapes they be. Music for a sunny afternoon to chill out to. Gorgeous stuff all told. The world can be their oyster if they continue releasing music in this vein’. BANG!! Take this you twat. "A Brittle Substance" is a knee to groin interface where tears of pain flow as you’re doubled up in two. Never underestimate an act. Never make assumptions. They hold all the cards and can bluff you mercilessly.

Of course this tiny 3" CDR is not just the work of Ctephin. GX Jupitter-Larsen had a big hand in this release so some of the responsibilities goes onto him. What a guy. This conceptual artist, who has dabbled in virtually everything that can be considered art, does things his way and damn the torpedoes. Want proof? Check out his website at www.jupitter-larsen.com. There is a world out there even alien to one such as I. This collaboration… dedicated to one Walter C Mc Crone… is a 19 minute+ electronic sound collage. The music (and it scares me to call it that) is the sort of noise that, depending on your viewpoint, is either pretentious shit not worth listening to or a forward thinking intelligent dissection of the way, that, by breaking down the barriers of perception the beauty of electronic cacophony is fully realised and laid bare. Then again, it could just be one fucking avant-garde created racket that will make your pets crap themselves with fright. The jury is out on this one.

I’ve listened to this release intensely over many days. Sometimes I find the sheer weight of electronics assaulting the senses a burden which no-one in their right mind would want to subject themselves willingly to. Sometimes I felt a deep empathy with the artists and fully understood their motives and execution and applauded them for their audacity for actually putting this together. On other occasions I couldn’t help but smile inwardly at the sheer cheek of the artists in their obstinate approach. ‘A Brittle Substance’ is the type of recording that will split peoples opinions. Love it or hate it. There really isn’t any other options available. You pays your money and takes your chance. Considering the pittance this will cost you I would suggest you give it a whirl. You never know. It might, just might, be what you’ve been looking for to fill that empty void nagging away at your insides. There be lots of noise releases in this world. Then there’s "A Brittle Substance". Different enough to stand out from the crowd. Walter would be proud…whoever he was / is.

ANM