any fan of unusual/experimental music knows that providence, rhode island has the goods. fort thunder, a venue/artspace founded by one of lightning bolt's brians, is the center of the rad providence scene. this 3 cd compilation of fort thunder artists for 8 bucks should be an enticing proposition to any self-respecting music fan.
the whole set is heavy on the electronic noise, but
train tunnel sounds like large metal objects banging together,
"borbid torpor" sounds like cookie monster saying "borbid torpor" with groaning sounds in the background,
libynth's "fart thunderwear" track is a fast, high-pitched techno-noise deal played live--nothing groundbreaking, but still not your grandma's techno,
tazer delivers a lightning bolt -esque jam with what sounds like a bass with unintentional feedback and a thrift store drum kit--wouldn't be out of place on a higher-budget comp if it had better production.
"reptile house" is a novelty rap sort of deal, and it sounds like grandmaster flash backed by mc trachiotomy's beats,
roentgen's "vineyard pirates vs. maximum harmful" not only has the best name on the disc, but is a pretty fun little tune--sounds like a noiser version of fast forward on fast forward (minus the vocals).
gang of fonzies throw in a brief drunken sing along before
dan bodah and jeff hartford's abstract electro-romp--no beat here, but interesting sounds for patient listeners.
larry marshall's "spontaneous human combustion" is similar, with subtle guitar noodling over found sound samples and unidentifiable noises.
the bronchitis brothers offer another bass/drums collaboration that is essentially a fast drone piece (i.e. repetetive bassline and drumming build up and fade away).
"burning plastic army" is the minnows electric track, and it is abstract enough to evade categorization--the easiest reference point is new black dice.
mindflayer is one of the few big name bands in the set (brian c. from lightning bolt on drums, mr. brinkman on electronics), and lives up to expectations--a rockin' noisy jam with thundering drums.
baecom's twinkly-sounding electronics are interesting for the duration of the 1 minute track but
voknine's creepy electro-soul "number 2" induces boredom after the first few listens.
25 suaves do their sloppy fast garage noise for "herculem"--the closest thing to rock and roll you'll find here.
defecation's 7-minute "undesirable" sounds like a fort thunder version of advernturous electronica artists like lesser or cex
and, finally, ninja (from fort thunder bass/violin combo ninja versus wrestler) offers up a 12-minute violin party that somehow fits in with the rest of the craziness. a good start.
begins with a landed track from a radio appearance that sounds like a poor man's pink and brown--more noise and repetition, less talent.
lief ritchey's "boom trunk new dehli jalopy" (more excellent song titles on this disc) has flirtations with accessibility and beat that are similar to those of defecation, but still packs in the weirdness.
tom hohmann is next with "land of the tree," in which real instruments create an interesting melody that is destroyed by horribly annoying electronically-processed vocals.
eloe omoe gets back into the spirit of disc one with tuneless, formless, beatless electronic abstraction that is followed by
jungle biscuit's "green flash"--a sci-fi sample that turns into 2 minutes of knob-twisting that resembles the previous track.
michael tuttle's "you do what do" consists of the phrase "you can do what you do" repeated into various tape-based recording devices and spliced together and played back with staticy noise... it sounds pretty cool in action.
next is "summer breeze" as interpreted by seals and crofts; expecting a gentle acoustic rendition would make one half correct and half horribly wrong.
pink and brown follow with "888 freeze" to shake some hips with their spastic noise rock (eric p. of arab on radar loves these guys), and a wonderfully-named band called
rocket science and the nigger-loving faggots do some down home noise on real instruments that sounds a little like an overblown sonic youth instrumental. burmese--apparently a favorite of the flying luttenbacher's weasel walter--sound like the locust gone death-metal gone noise for about 40 seconds on "bikini atoll" and
white dwarv does more of that near-indescribable electronic fuckery that shall henceforth be referred to as "ft. thunder groove" for "mrs. popularity breaks even."
the next track, "the heitel lowtech..." is more of the same with drony sounds that are kind of hypnotic.
j9's "san francisco fan" is a shocker... a sultry female vocalist sings a murder ballad that turns into an jarring ocapella pop song about chairman mao sung by squeaky children--did i miss something?
patootie lobe is next with more lesser/cex/defecation/ritchy pseudobeats and more of that crazy low frequency moaning noise that keeps popping up on this comp.
la machine does a relatively accessible instrumental two-parter with synths and drums that sounds, surprisingly, nothing like neon hunk,
quijot does game boy techno on "enamel", and
mr. apocalypse now does noisy doom/stoner metal meets high pitched reed instruments and electro noise meets spazzier pink and brown -style noise rock (this one is nuts, but I like it).
the formality continues with mr. pipes, whose "providence place mall" is odball novelty pop for those with an extreme aversion to shopping centers, and
the duel shows us why music still has the power to scare the shit out of people with "its not in the cards".
the pines of rome do a cello/drums/acoustic version of the rites of spring's "for want of" that doesn't quite capture the energy of the original, and
this great levigator conspiracy does ft. thunder groove on unidentifiable instruments (not electronics) for the less agressive noise crowd and
finally, a band called geraldo made me kill sounds like you would expect--it's weird and it's noisy and it just might make you happy.
starts out with 25000 dollar pyramid's "blue are friend"--nonthreatening, poppy drum machine + happy sounds--to avoid scaring off the folks with
the creepy, repetetive ft. thunder groove of track 2 by the monger.
3rd is the infamously amazing lightning bolt with "race back to earth"--it is bad sound quality, but it still makes me happy to listen to this band make noise like an angry zeus on jazz.
ferox head does squealing ft. thunder groove that approaches merzbow territory, followed by
the low-key jazz rhythm section gone drone of under stiga.
budd dingo is next with his poem about jesus and shit and a sexually-charged folk song about springtime.
then it's curmudgeon clique's secretly poppy noise rock, followed by
the movement enjoying more ft. thunder groove.
maritime to earther does really fast and repetetive techno stuff, and
wolf eyes covers "wild thing" with rampant evilness and comical audience interaction ("shhh"/"fuck you!").
more ft. thunder groove on the magas track, and
spacey electronics from sabi.
electronics meet guitars meet cowbells for marvin validbook's eastern-flavored "a vivid balkan room," and
las bloody conchas do poppy sing-along oddness on "skeletons."
morph brinkles (some relation to mr. brinkman, perhaps) does someting that sounds a lot like mr. brinkmans ft. thunder groove.
then there's druid with insane drum machines that get so frantic they create a song entirely devoid of melody... this is amazing... then does some vocal/drum machine noise rock that sounds like lightning bolt with three more drummers and one less bassist--wow.
the live recording of barnyard critters (lightning bolt side project with cartoon farm animals multimedia) sounds like it should--crazy old men yelling with harmonicas and banging things.
sinking body does an electronic soundtrack to a 2.5 minute abstract horror movie with "liver splice," and
forcefield is a little more interesting than usual playing live at the second annual roggaboggas (some big art-hipster event in nyc, i believe).
10th dimension does a forgotten '50s love song via casio and helium, and
the disc closes with a crazy story about the mysterious duke of olneyville. wow.