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BOYD RICE/NON, "TERRA INCOGNITA: AMBIENT WORKS 1975-PRESENT"
Mute
For an avowed proponent of the might-makes-right doctrines of SocialDarwinism and a frequent spokesman for neo-Satanic philosophies, BoydRice sure does spend a lot of time trying to persuade us he has asofter side. Whether through the campy pop songbook of Spell's Seasons In the Sun or his compilation of saccharine girl-group pop Music For Pussycats,the infamous provocateur behind such classics as "Let's Hear it ForViolence Towards Women" lately seems to be exhibiting his kindler,gentler qualities. Terra Incognita chooses 13 tracks fromalmost 30 years of recordings with a special emphasis on atmosphere,moodiness and listenability. A release like this is certainly apointless waste of time for Non aficionados who have already collectedthe albums from which these tracks are drawn, but for those justdipping their feet into brackish Boyd Rice waters, it's slightly lesspointless. These 13 tracks (and the lengthy liner notes by Brian M.Clark) make the case for Boyd Rice as musical innovator, focusing onhis unorthodox experiments with tape loops, distressed vinyl andself-built noisemakers as methods employed to open up the possibilitiesof experimental music. Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to findcontemporaries doing anything remotely similar to the "music" on BoydRice's 1975 debut, with the possible exception of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.Further, Boyd's combination of the noise aesthetic with extremistpolitics, occultism and moral transgression impregnated his music witha richly suggestive atmosphere. Listening to the grinding sheets ofnoise and distortion on any of Non's albums, one could imagine allsorts of subliminal messages worming their way into the subconscious;pick out all manner of sound effects, voices and subtle aural nuancesthat may or may not have been placed there intentionally. Using atechnique similar to the Burroughs/Gysin concept of the "third mind,"Boyd Rice often overlaps two different sound sources to create a third,unpredictable frequency that supercedes artistic manipulation andcreates something sublimely unsettling. The majority of the tracks on Terra Incognitaplay to Rice's obsession with easy listening music and 60's girl-pop,utilizing looped, distorted samples from vintage pop novelty singles."Extract 4" from Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing, Boyd's1981 collaboration with the late Frank Tovey of Fad Gadget, matches aslowly decaying circus calliope with grating buzzsaw noises. What couldvery well be a loop lifted directly from a Lee Hazlewood production,turned slightly askew and refracted back onto itself, forms the basisof "Immolation of Man." Successive tracks are more austere and gothic,from the dusty, windswept chimes of Blood and Flame's "CruentaVoluptas" to the ghostly Gregorian conflagration of "The Fountain ofFortune," taken from Non's recent artistic misfire Children of the Black Sun."Untitled 1" from Boyd Rice's self-titled 1975 debut seems to prefigureBoards of Canada, consisting of a warbling easy-listening loop awashwith nostalgia, layered with sheets of drone and audio decay. Takentogether, Terra Incognita is a well-sequenced collection that proves Boyd Rice is more than merely the sum of his offenses.
For an avowed proponent of the might-makes-right doctrines of SocialDarwinism and a frequent spokesman for neo-Satanic philosophies, BoydRice sure does spend a lot of time trying to persuade us he has asofter side. Whether through the campy pop songbook of Spell's Seasons In the Sun or his compilation of saccharine girl-group pop Music For Pussycats,the infamous provocateur behind such classics as "Let's Hear it ForViolence Towards Women" lately seems to be exhibiting his kindler,gentler qualities. Terra Incognita chooses 13 tracks fromalmost 30 years of recordings with a special emphasis on atmosphere,moodiness and listenability. A release like this is certainly apointless waste of time for Non aficionados who have already collectedthe albums from which these tracks are drawn, but for those justdipping their feet into brackish Boyd Rice waters, it's slightly lesspointless. These 13 tracks (and the lengthy liner notes by Brian M.Clark) make the case for Boyd Rice as musical innovator, focusing onhis unorthodox experiments with tape loops, distressed vinyl andself-built noisemakers as methods employed to open up the possibilitiesof experimental music. Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to findcontemporaries doing anything remotely similar to the "music" on BoydRice's 1975 debut, with the possible exception of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.Further, Boyd's combination of the noise aesthetic with extremistpolitics, occultism and moral transgression impregnated his music witha richly suggestive atmosphere. Listening to the grinding sheets ofnoise and distortion on any of Non's albums, one could imagine allsorts of subliminal messages worming their way into the subconscious;pick out all manner of sound effects, voices and subtle aural nuancesthat may or may not have been placed there intentionally. Using atechnique similar to the Burroughs/Gysin concept of the "third mind,"Boyd Rice often overlaps two different sound sources to create a third,unpredictable frequency that supercedes artistic manipulation andcreates something sublimely unsettling. The majority of the tracks on Terra Incognitaplay to Rice's obsession with easy listening music and 60's girl-pop,utilizing looped, distorted samples from vintage pop novelty singles."Extract 4" from Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing, Boyd's1981 collaboration with the late Frank Tovey of Fad Gadget, matches aslowly decaying circus calliope with grating buzzsaw noises. What couldvery well be a loop lifted directly from a Lee Hazlewood production,turned slightly askew and refracted back onto itself, forms the basisof "Immolation of Man." Successive tracks are more austere and gothic,from the dusty, windswept chimes of Blood and Flame's "CruentaVoluptas" to the ghostly Gregorian conflagration of "The Fountain ofFortune," taken from Non's recent artistic misfire Children of the Black Sun."Untitled 1" from Boyd Rice's self-titled 1975 debut seems to prefigureBoards of Canada, consisting of a warbling easy-listening loop awashwith nostalgia, layered with sheets of drone and audio decay. Takentogether, Terra Incognita is a well-sequenced collection that proves Boyd Rice is more than merely the sum of his offenses.
