Two of Upstate New York’s prolific artists, Mike Griffin (Parashi) and Eric Hardiman (Rambutan) have both been responsible for a slew of tapes, vinyl, and CD/CDRs of work that can never be easily predicted. Either on their own or in collaborations, their work runs the gamut from harsh noise to complex abstract spaces and sometimes dabbling into more conventional musical realms. This split double disc set features each on their own, with the albums sounding rather different from each other, but with a clear artistic consistency and intent between the two.
Griffin’s album, Wave Function Collapse, features him flirting with conventional musical features and structures, while still drifting into more cosmic abstractions. "Red Plague" is a mass of ghostly electronic whispers, propelled by an overdriven bass. His upfront, although lightly processed vocals give it the vibe of a deconstructed song. It becomes more pronounced as he shifts the bass sound to a more conventional one slips in a largely untreated guitar. "Swim in Petrol" is similarly musical in nature, pairing lo-fi style acoustic guitar and vocals relatively low in the mix, awash in reverb.
Guitar may feature heavily throughout his disc, but "Vermiform" has Griffin leaning more into his electronic side. Based upon a low frequency tone, reversed voices are met with a murky, buzzing bit of electronic interference. "Critical Pile" is another one where inorganic sounds are the focus: Griffin transitions from a stuttering computer opening into swirling electronics and strange spacy pulsations. "Under the Parson’s Fist" is a perfect representation of his electronic tendencies. Here, he joins percussive rattles with noisy electronics in an intentionally off-kilter rhythmic manner, adds divebombing tones, and eventually shifts to grating noise and back again.
On Cognitive Origami, Hardiman's repertoire is just as diverse, utilizing guitar, electronics, effects, and tape manipulations. The aforementioned use of tapes is a prominent part of opener "Folded Within Time." Noisy, looping tapes overshadow a simple melody that stays low in the mixe balanced by the magnetic sputtering of him physically manipulating the recordings. Dub elements are noteworthy in both "Precision Shadows" and "The Spectacle of Memory." In the former, Hardiman blends echoes with layers of treated guitar, some subtle almost percussion sounds and reversed passages into a strange, but pleasant concoction. On the latter, far off spacy reverb adds a distinct mood to the carefully controlled feedback and evolving tones within an overall sparse mix.
"Another Malevolent Memory" is an overt example Hardiman stretching out in all different directions stylistically. Field recordings of crickets and what is likely fire crackling, resonating tones and electrical outbursts all feature. To this he adds a disquieting, woozy quality via low bit rate digital sampling and a sound that could be human, or animal, or something else entirely. With the weird clattering and constantly shifting mix alongside, it sounds like a very bad overnight camping trip.
This sense of disquiet via electronics is also prevalent on "Autonomous Temporal Division," with a mass of popping and squeaking sounds electronic sounds merged with lo-fi electronics and shrill synth passages. Not necessarily unpleasant, but unidentifiable, and ends with what resembles detuned radio noise. Closer "In the Hidden Sinews" is another high intensity piece. Pulsating, muddy electronics, rapidly bowed strings and some occasional bits of plaintive guitar all all apparent throughout the piece’s 10-and-a-half-minute duration. It is extremely dynamic and constantly shifting, with the guitar work coming into focus more clearly in the end.
At times there is some clear stylistic overlap, such as the deep electrical sludge of Parashi’s "Under the Parson’s Fist", and the more explicit guitar segments of Rambutan’s "Field of Energy," but for the most part Wave Function Collapse and Cognitive Origami are albums that sound rather distinct from one another. A consistent element from both Mike Griffin and Eric Hardiman, however, is a clear lack of desire to stay contained within any specific compositional strategy, much less genre of any kind. Different in sound, but united in attitude, it makes for the best type of split artist release.
