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John Rifle, "Fracas Nurture"
Rabbit Surgeon Musics
And from the "What the fuck is this?" file comes this CD from JohnRifle. John Rifle is an enigma. He's obsessed with rabbits, as thealbum artwork shows, and pop culture, as the music shows. He's nothappy with the way things are going in this world of ours, and he'staking action. Mostly minimal piano and drum-created music with soundsamples on top, "Fracas Nurture" is a pretty strange and frighteninglisten, completely devoid of warnings or clearances. Most samples aretaken from television source material like ABC News and VH1 Behind theMusic, and the CD is assembled like one long radio broadcast frominside the mind of a lunatic. It's socially conscious, it's got itssights set on many different targets, including the music industry,fame, drug use and the media, and it's completely and totally out ofits gourd. Never has sound collage music sounded this urgent, thisdriven, or this insane. It's like Negativland making the soundtrack fora reality TV/horror movie. Bob Weston recorded this music, and he hasdone an admirable job given how this material could drive anyoneinvolved over the edge. Tom Waits once created a track like this withsamples of Dan Rather, and this is like the dream that track touchedupon fully realized. Occasionally the music takes on a real structure,like on 'Intercom', but not often. Mostly, it's spoken wordperformances, with a little music for good measure. It's a message, notexactly for the faint of heart, that has some music with it. It's agood project (can't really call it an album because it defies even thatmoniker), but needs to be absorbed in doses. This is too much for onesitting. Try it out, though, because it needs to be heard to bebelieved or understood.
And from the "What the fuck is this?" file comes this CD from JohnRifle. John Rifle is an enigma. He's obsessed with rabbits, as thealbum artwork shows, and pop culture, as the music shows. He's nothappy with the way things are going in this world of ours, and he'staking action. Mostly minimal piano and drum-created music with soundsamples on top, "Fracas Nurture" is a pretty strange and frighteninglisten, completely devoid of warnings or clearances. Most samples aretaken from television source material like ABC News and VH1 Behind theMusic, and the CD is assembled like one long radio broadcast frominside the mind of a lunatic. It's socially conscious, it's got itssights set on many different targets, including the music industry,fame, drug use and the media, and it's completely and totally out ofits gourd. Never has sound collage music sounded this urgent, thisdriven, or this insane. It's like Negativland making the soundtrack fora reality TV/horror movie. Bob Weston recorded this music, and he hasdone an admirable job given how this material could drive anyoneinvolved over the edge. Tom Waits once created a track like this withsamples of Dan Rather, and this is like the dream that track touchedupon fully realized. Occasionally the music takes on a real structure,like on 'Intercom', but not often. Mostly, it's spoken wordperformances, with a little music for good measure. It's a message, notexactly for the faint of heart, that has some music with it. It's agood project (can't really call it an album because it defies even thatmoniker), but needs to be absorbed in doses. This is too much for onesitting. Try it out, though, because it needs to be heard to bebelieved or understood.
samples:
Greg Davis, Ben Vida (Bird Show), and Keith "Hrvatski" Whitman
Greg Davis, Ben Vida, and Keith Fullerton Whitman each have new albums on Kranky and are on the road, touring and playing together as a trio for the first time. While we settled on the name of this Eye segment as "Nightcrawlers," rejected titles included "Menage a' Beard," "Friends That Play Together Stay Together," and "Banjovi." Hopefully we can look forward to an amazing album from the three eventually.
