Silverdoor

It's hard to remember that the 1980's—usually thought of as the decade
of new wave, college rock and hair metal excess—was also the decade of
a vitally important generation of underground experimental musicians.
Post-industrial, noise and audio surrealism flourished during the 80's,
and labels like United Dairies and DOM were the primary outlet for this
unique crop of artists. A lot of this music has remained hopelessly
rare and unavailable on the digital format. Luckily, last year saw some
re-releases of HNAS' classic back catalogue, but there is a lot still
left untouched. Where are the CD reissues of the Nihilist Spasm Band,
Asmus Tietchens, Robert Haigh, Uli Trepte, Masstishaddhu and Two
Daughters? How about Limpe Fuchs, Smegma and Algebra Suicide? Come on
people, this is a goldmine of great musical esoterica! Now that I'm
through ranting, I can revel in the fact that Roger Doyle's Silverdoor
label has now re-released his United Dairies masterpiece.
Rapid Eye Movements
was originally released under the artist name Operating Theatre in
1981, and for me it is an unmatched classic of tape collage. No
kidding, I like to refer to this album as the "Citizen Kane" of musique
concrete. I first heard the United Dairies cassette nearly ten years
ago when a friend played it to me while I was in an altered state, and
I was baffled and awed by this strange construction of disparate
elements and bizarre sound effects. Later, I listened to it again and
again in an effort to decipher the seemingly narrative progression of
the tape edits. The United Dairies release contained only two sidelong
pieces: "Fin-Estra" and "Rapid Eye Movements." For this reissue,
however, Roger Doyle has added two earlier pieces as a bonus: "The
Piano Suite" and "Why is Killkenny So Good?" The former is a
three-part, impressionistic solo piano performance by Roger Doyle.
While the music is nice enough, it really sticks out like a sore thumb
sandwiched between two lengthy, atmospheric tape collage pieces. No
offense to Mr. Doyle, but I don't think that the inclusion of this
piece was a very good idea. In contrast, "Killkenny" fits perfectly on
the disc, an eerie cut-up of a 13-year old drug addict describing his
addiction as dimensional sounds swoop and mutate in the foreground.
"Fin-Estra" is a dark, mental voyage filled with unexpected drama. and
Doyle utilizes sped up and slowed-down tape queuing in an ingenius way.
The sounds of an orchestra, children at play, and strange alien tones
are juxtaposed. The 25 minutes of "Rapid Eye Movements" is my favorite
moment in avant-garde music. A man trudges through the snow screaming
"Madeleine!", a room full of foreign shoolchildren recite words,
someone plays scales on a lonely piano in an empty room. It's the aural
equivalent of a disjointed, ephemoral dream, full of deja vu moments
that seem even creepier and more evocative with each listen. I'm on at
least my 100th listen of Rapid Eye Movements, and it still hasn't
become boring or predictable.
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