It is unfortunate for Matt Waldron (Irr.App.[Ext.]) that his reworking of the Angry Eelectric Finger raw material was alotted Volume Three status, as he has used many of the same sounds as Jim O'Rourke used in his Volume One. Although both albums are excellent listens, perhaps owing to the strength of the source material, both artists have done little alteration and their volumes sound a bit too similar at times. It is unclear whether or not they heard each other's works in progress, although I imagine that they did not. Waldron has started his "Part One" with the same ratchet sound and creepy drones that are a main feature of both the Raw Material LP and O'Rourke's volume. However, this version quickly gives way to a more chaotic and surreal environment, with chugging motor patterns ping-ponging around the stereo field. "Part Two" again treads similar ground to the O'Rourke version, in which both artists have included a large, unaltered section featuring interplay between saxophone, flute, and hand drums. Waldron has placed this section closer to the end of the piece, while O'Rourke introduced it near the beginning of "Part Two." Here Waldron's structure mirrors that of the Raw Material LP almost exactly. The first half of Mute Bell Extinction Process's "Part Two" is taken up by swirling psychedelic electronics, much as side two of Stapleton and Potter's raw material LP is. Perhaps Waldron's well-documented reverence for Nurse With Wound got in the way of his being more adventurous, or perhaps he felt that the source material was so strong that he didn't want to do more than give it a slight twist. This is, after all, the same man who released a CD of a version of Nurse With Wound's debut album, Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella which he accidentally "remixed" by simply making a tape-to-tape copy of said album on defective tape machines.

Jim Siegel