District Of Noise Vol. 4

This is a wicked cool compilation of noise artists from the DC area, a sampler of performers from the 2011 Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music. I feel like a total jackass for not even hearing about this; apparently some of the performances occurred at venues less than a mile from my mom’s house, and it was before fall quarter started. Well, now we can all wish we had been there by listening to all sorts of delightful avant-garde gems on this record, ranging from 4am meditative ambient, to wild improv, to random fuzzy sound collages from outer space. Not unlike our own 2012 Day Of Noise in the startling diversity of sounds. Pretty much every single track on this record demands to be played by DJs with even the slightest experimental inclinations.

Side A:
1. (4:12) Borborites: hushed, slow and droney with some meandering guitar and bells, chill found-sound (wind and rising tide); reminds me of Thomas Dimuzio with some hints of Barn Owl. “There are no more opium dens.”
2. (5:00) Music From The Film: weird distorted alien vocals rambling about pigs going oink and cows going moo; drums, percussion, noise and dulcimer; loopy and childish. Fantastically weird.
3. (4:46) Blue Sausage Infant: tribal yet noisy beats over some far-out wandering synth, almost like Seattle’s Brain Fruit (Debacle records faves) with a DC funk influence.
4. (4:27) Safe Fast & Effective: erratic, amorphous ambient soundscapes, dreamy lullaby synth melody; meditative noise drone with some twinkling bells and forgotten half-melodies.
5. (4:08) Pilesar: loops of babbling scat-singing over some pretty nutty drum machine. Gets into a weird head-noddin’ groove with some old-school casio synth, adds sparkly dancey layers. If nightclubs had 8-bit dance nights, this would be mandatory on the DJ’s repertoire.

Side B:
1. (4:17) Violet: low, rumbling harsh noise, not quite so abrasive as it is dark and disturbing. Then the track unexpectedly shifts to some quiet, repetitive moog melodies with some weird buzzing static and scraping slowly taking over
2. (4:29) TL0741+ Anthony Pirog: Electric dolphin and whale calls + broken dial-up connection + dreamy ambient + generally awesome whatthefuck-ness
3. (4:01) Nine_Strings_Trio: lazy atonal mindfuckery with bass, cello, woodwinds, and “objects”… awyehhhh
4. (3:44) Stylus: weird, slow, gentle warbling noise-drone; apparently performed live, though you’d never know it
5. (3:44) Insect Factory: bliss-out narcotic ambient a la Tim Hecker minus the pianos
6. (2:46) Janel Leppin: abstract layering of various operatic voices singing “oooh” over some gentle, moody ambient and bowed cello