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Jim Haynes, "The Wires Cracked"
Haynes is a multimedia artist who works in many different mediums and formats, but a consistent sense of rust and decay carries through them all. Recent audio works Sever and The Decline Effect exemplify this perfectly each, built upon layers of found sounds and field recordings, processed and disintegrated into textures and sounds that are enticing, yet alien. For his debut on Editions Mego, he follows the same successful format, using the sounds of desert winds, laser cooling systems, and thin wires as the source, resulting in a work that sounds entirely alien.
The first sound that stood out upon the beginning of this album is the harsher, more forceful one captured on "Oscar," melding what could be a dying organ’s tones and violent static outbursts that cut like a knife.These blasts occur erratically throughout, amidst an unsettling bed of crackling walkie-talkie static and ghostly apparitions lurking in the distance.
"X-Ray" Immediately leads off with the hollow, tactile electro-acoustic textures Haynes excels at, adding a metallic rattling and what sounds like a flanged jet engine blast enshrouding it all.For the bulk of its near 14 minute duration though, it stays at a lower level of intensity, like an ambient field recording that cannot be placed in time or space, with clattering dissonance bleeding in to be jarring here and there.
The side-long "November" encompasses both of these sonic extremes, with percussive junk sounds rattling atop disturbing swells and drops in sound.While the cacophony drones away, a low, almost imperceptible melody seems to rise up, eventually everything else is removed to just emphasize this somber tone.Slowly, the noise returns, in a spacious, arid way that closes the piece on the sound of a rusty howl and delicate reverberations, sounding natural yet completely unidentifiable.
The Wires Cracked is a fitting title for this work of decaying metal and erratic electricity.Haynes work has more of a collage, less composed structure, but each segment flows naturally into one another, making for a record that stands up to the fascinating textures and physical worlds of sound that bears his distinct mark. It fits in beautifully next to Sever and The Decline Effect, two of my favorite records of this type of sound art.
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