brainwashed

If you've ever heard a CD by Big City Orchestra, you know just what not to expect. This disc consists of various people reading selections from the cut-up books of Od McUb, who, according to the liner notes (nudge nudge wink wink? or is it true?) spliced together various books while living in Holland in the years 1911-1918 to give himself something new to read. The Silverman, Ed Ka-Spel, and Monte Cazaza are among those who read selections. Ka-Spel's book describes how to gather ultrasounds to keep in jars (be sure to have your mom pokes holes in the top first!) by digging in your backyard. All texts seem to have been recorded in a single take, and boo-boos are left in. The Silverman, for instance, cracks up over `tri-cyclic antidepressants'. The music is quite varied. Kan't-Spell and the Silver dude are not credited with providing music, and as far as I can tell, they didn't. But who can tell? I can't. The music in some pieces adds sound effects to highlight the text. In other pieces, the music gets Merzbow noisy and obscures the text. The CD, as usual for BCO, ends with selections from a sound-effects library. Make no mistake, this is DIFFICULT music. I'm sure I won't listen often, but nonetheless, I like it.