THE HAFLER TRIO — No More Twain, Of One Flesh: 11 Unequivocal Obsecretions

Andrew McKenzie has discovered the beauty and power of limited releases. Despite this modification, the release still has the feel of an LP, with the two long pieces representing each side of the album, not subdivided into tracks, even though each listed piece is clearly distinguishable from the others. This album is no different, but McKenzie has done such an incredible job at composing these sounds into a sublime, beautiful piece of minimalism in which the conceptual frustrations are rendered obsolete. Plainly, neither have glib solutions or dogma to dish out Indeed Cage said that he thought there was "Just the right amount" of suffering in the world, while Andrew McKenzie has asserted that "The world is perfect". The second CD is less episodic, a constantly shifting tapestry of icy drones punctuated by sudden jolts and thuds, which serve to focus the ear rather than allowing it to relax into Ambient listening slackness (McKenzie has always railed against such passivity in his audience.). Here, data crunched drones are suspended within an electrified ether, the noxious rasp of a modem nestles against corroded pulsations, and oxygenated whispers reverberate through and eerie ambience. Recorded in the spring of 2002, the pieces explore various techniques of generating, manipulating and arranging sound, from the past to the present, their relation to each other, and a personal approach to dealing with them. Finally, the amount of material presented here, and its richness cannot but leave a feeling of amazement.