Was that Kosmik Kommando? Merzbow? Pan Sonic? No, it was twelve littleold gameboys strung up on gallery walls and singing their scoredbattery powered noises through cheapo cheapo speakers. Matt Wand, he ofStock, Hausen & Walkman and Hot Air records, has been performingsolo recently on gameboys and has been collecting the old machines fora while. Like Philip Jeck's 'Off The Record' installation with racks oflooping record players, part of the idea was to walk around and hearhow the sounds shifted and crossed and complemented and deadened eachother as they burbled, squealed, whooshed and crackled. Mr Wand hasmade available a souvenir of this event in the form of a tiny little 3"CD with 21 minutes of edited highlights. He's known for his humourousapproach to music though, and even after going to a private view of thegameboy orchestra after this was recorded, I can't work out if thenumbered sequences on the insert really relate to the score or if he'spulling our legs. Apparently the game Tetris was an inspiration for theinstallation. Whatever, the results here make strangely compellinglistening and don't sound like anything else he's done before.
samples:
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