The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Chop Shop 
  Oxide
  (23Five) 

   review by Max Schaefer
  2008-06-04
Chop Shop: Oxide (23Five)

The magic of disappearance, New York sound artist Scott Konzelmann seems beholden to it. He constructs Frankensteinian structural objects out of junkyard crumbs and trifles, and strafes them to functional loudspeakers such that an array of frequencies are compressed into sibilant static and a glut of wearing metallic drones. Much to his dismay - or, one suspects, pleasure - these analogue tapes were later found maimed by moisture, which brought about various drop-outs and print-throughs, disfiguring and all but destroying the work.

All well and good, however, as Konzelmann makes this disappearance into a technique that brings a satisfying buzz of freshness to the project. It begins geometric and rational in its forms, with subtle varieties of color. Owing to the 'unhappy accident' that wrought its body like some sort of shock wave, though, its surface is also swayed seductively, with ghostly tremors that whistle like a distant call of sirens, and open up a energy of fission and rupture that continues to mark the proceedings.

Konzelmann is also occasionally found back on his heels in a way that proves productive. Rather than go straight for the jugular, he loosens his grip, stridently letting the material slip through his fingers, seeing where it ripples with potential, and builds out from there. It results in an orbital journey through space and time. Certain pieces are barely there, drifting wraithlike through angular chromium edges. These then undergo aural shocks and surprises that bring them further out of the background into more elaborate territories, where the sound is that of a planet coalescing from unstable clouds of cosmic gas. Finally pieces shoot forward as a multilayered and fathomless strata of loops and low end drones encrusted with residues of aeons, ancient, all but fossilized. The development is thus characterized by a certain juddering drama, as it mutates and evolves at a consistent yet thrilling rate. In continually aiming off to the side, not directly at his own good, in ensnaring and being himself ensnared by this process of disappearance, thus showing some artistry and imagination along the way, Konzelmann has replaced one unhappy accident with a decidedly more endearing other.





Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Don Cherry (
w/ Walcott/
Thomas):
Sunrise (
1977)
[VINYL 2 LPs]
(WeWantSounds)



Don Cherry (
w/ Walcott/
Thomas):
Sunrise (
1977)
(WeWantSounds)



Satoko Fujii's Orchestra Tokyo:
Kappa Ondo
[2 CDs]
(Libra)



Sunny Murray/
Arthur Doyle/
Rasul Siddik:
New Light
[VINYL]
(NoBusiness)



Sunny Murray/
Arthur Doyle/
Rasul Siddik:
Incantations
(NoBusiness)



Sunny Murray/
Arthur Doyle/
Rasul Siddik:
Incantations
[VINYL]
(NoBusiness)



Brandon Seabrook (
w/ Frisell/
Carter/
Gilmore):
Utility Modern
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Threadgill Zooid, Henry:
Cut You Where
You Was
(Pi Recordings)



Henry Threadgill Zooid:
Cut You
Where You Was
[VINYL]
(Pi Recordings)



Rempis/
Abrams/
Ra + Baker:
The Walls of
the Temple
Are Made of Sound
[2 CDs]
(Aerophonic)



Rova (
Ackley/
Adam/
Ochs/
Raskin):
Those Who...
(ESP)



Michael Thieke/
Luigi Marino:
For The Skylarks
[CASSETTE w/ DONLOAD]
(Emergent Idioms)



Jason Hwang Kao/
Human Rites Trio (
w/ Drury/
Filiano):
Second Life
(True Sound Recordings)



Wadada Smith Leo (
Courvoisier/
Laswell/
Gibbs/
akLaff/
&c.):
Constellations
And
Hemispheres
(Burning Ambulance Music)



Casserley/
Marzan/
Van Schouwburg/
Wachsmann:
Being
(Bead)



Gebhard Ullmann (
w/ Steve Swell/
Joe Morris/
Charles Downs):
Coffee And Berries
(ESP Disk)



Gottliche Skizzen (
Delazer/
Delius/
Obleser):
Ringi Ringd Coint
(ezz-thetics now)



Sonelius Smith/
Adam Kahan:
We'll Let You Know
When We Find Out
[VINYL]
(577 Records)



Sophie Hassfurther:
Kaleidoscope -
Empathy
(ezz-thetics now)



Airlift (
Diehl/
Lowery/
Lawson/
Levin/
Lavelle/
Hotep/
Marquez/
Dennis):
Spatial Recognition
[2 CDs]
(577 Records)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (26717)