March 02, 2004
Rx Gallery: Jiffy-Scuttler Two
My favorite artist, Loren Chasse (front), playing with Glenn Donaldson as The Blithe Sons; absolutely sublime.
Danielle DeGruttola ripping on her electric cello. Gliding through subtle, experimental sound, classical composition and metal enthused noise.
February 01, 2004
Rx Gallery: Jiffy-Scuttler One
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What follows is a failed, forced attempt at descriptive writing:
Never having heard of Carl Stone before, I was informed he is one of the original San Francisco electronic + field recording artists. Mr. Stone's full and rich field samples were processed clean and crisp. The warm field recordings, so coolly post-processed, were delicate and satisfying. Sounds were layered onto and into one another with the care of experience; vocal scraps were released within lush shrubs of crunchy static. Transitions between moods were slow and smooth; a few times along the journey, I lost track of where some of the aural personalities had gone.
Under this veil of mastery, I expected a complete and whole story. Instead, the end came rather abruptly, devoid of the care I felt sheparding transitions. The unfortunate end made me question the piece as a whole; I was unable to understand the journey I had taken. Was this merely a meandering through the land of electronica, or was there a deeper structure transparent to my naive gaze? Mostly, my disappointment rises from a long-standing issue: the majority of laptop musicians I've heard don't understand beginning, middle, and end. Particularly, end.