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enhanced gravity - reviews
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Splendit Reviews (10-04-1998)
So, I was at a friend's house the other day, and his 9 year old daughter was telling us about how there's a video on her new NSync CD. One of the adults in the room was flabbergasted -- she had never heard of such a thing! I mentioned that it's pretty common these days for CDs, especially pop CDs, to come with some sort of multimedia content on them, so that you can just pop them into your computer and...in the case of a boy group like NSync, try to figure out who's the bad boy and who's the poetic one. To which another adult responded, "Yeah, but they'll never do that for any of the music that I'm interested in." Well, I'm not really sure what kind of music that fellow is into, but if he's into contemporary experimental art music, then boy do I have a CD for him!
Enhanced Gravity is a combination audio CD/multimedia CD-ROM that takes its name and theme from a satirical illustration drawn by an unknown artist in around 1687. The illustration pokes fun at Isaac Newton's then-controversial theory and law of gravitation, and presents us with nine variations on the basic idea: Absolute Gravity; Against Absolute Gravity; Partial Gravity; Comparative Gravity; Horizontal, Or Good Sense; Wit; Comparative Levity, Or Coxcomb; Partial Levity, Or Pert Fool; and Absolute Levity, Or Stark Fool. To make this intriguing CD, Yucca Tree Records gathered together nine audio artists/groups and had each of them contribute a piece using one of the types of gravity as its basis (it seems that some of the pieces were originally created for other purposes). Aesthetically, the pieces are all over the map, ranging from "Absolute Gravity" -- a noisy, sample-based collage by Chris Cutler & Bob Drake -- to Amy Denio's "Partial Gravity," a strange and lovely piece for hands slapping water, tabla and bagpipes. Faust contributes "Against Absolute Gravity", a distorted, noodly guitar and percussion duet, while Laurie Spiegel's "Partial Levity, Or Pert Fool" evokes visions of an odd airport where electronic windchimes are attached to all of the planes. There are additional pieces from Diledadafish, Noble Gas, Un Drame Musical Instantané, Pointless Orchestra and Steve Horowitz, each of them interesting in their own way. And that's just the audio portion of the CD! The CD-ROM portion contains a section for each artist, including small multimedia works, additional sounds and images and information on the artist. As usual, I found that I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to navigate the CD-ROM and waiting for it to load, but that didn't stop me from enjoying most of the content. It's clear that the multimedia portion of the project is not quite as accomplished as the audio, but that doesn't bother me. Enhanced Gravity seems to work best as primarily an audio CD, with the added benefit of additional content and information on the CD-ROM part. It's a well-made, fun and engaging project, and I hope that we see more of this sort of thing from the less pop-oriented side of the music world as time goes by.
(Irving Bellemead)
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| False Prophet Campaign (12-23-1999)
Those Dada maniacs behind the Diledadafish project are back with this simply wonderful compilation. Presented in an exquisite digipak, we get nine tracks and a very fun multimedia portion, all of which can only be described as dada.
Chris Cutler and Bob Drake contribute the first track, "Absolute Gravity". Hard to described, but heavily reverbed collages of noise and found sounds, and probably some processed samples here and there. Has an old school industrial feel to it. "Against Absolute Gravity", by Faust (yes, that Faust). Guitars and other natural instruments mix with a percussion section that sounds like it consists of plates and dishes, very cool. "Partial Gravity" (by Amy Denio and Jim Bennett) is another strange one, found-instrument tribal percussion mixed with processed strings. Diledadafish contribute "Comparative Gravity", one of their more serious sounding tracks full of dark synths, odd voices, sporadic percussion, etc. Good as always. "Horizontal, Or Good Sence", by Noble Gas, is almost conventional by these standards. Middle Eastern sounding percussion loop and rather calm, mellow synth work. Kind of "electronica" in spots, but still too twisted to be danced to. "Wit", by Un Drame Musical Instantané is another weird one, strange sounds mixed with piano and jazzy horns. Very hard to describe in words. "Comparative Levity, Or Coxcomb" by Pointless Orchestra is rather calm, chimes, ambience, gongs, etc. Really good. "Partial Levity, Or Pert Fool", by Laurie Spiegel, is more of a mix of new age with ambient. Has that ethereal quality of new age, but not quite the pretense behind it, very gentle and nice. "Absolute Levity, Or Stark Fool" by Steve Horowitz ends the album on a strange note...conventional drums, guitar, synth, digeridoo, and various dialog samples. Once again, wonderfully strange.
The best way I could sum up this compilation is "weird". And this is coming from a guy who's heard lots of "weird" stuff and thought nothing of it. So in a way, it's the ultimate compliment. Totally dada here, from just the sound of the tracks to the strange multimedia portion. You think you're adventurous dear reader? You think you've heard it all? Get this CD and you'll probably be proved wrong. High recommendation!
(Creaig Dunton)
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| Antony Burnham for Metamorphic Journeyman
This is what music is about, in my opinion - not the lean, cellophane-wrapped-surgically-sterile stuff which will high-step from your radio if ever you cannot resist the urge (urge, huh!) to tune it in to National Radio Bland. This music comes from a point where sanity has no place - where madness is commendable. From abstracts which nod back towards the earliest Concrete Musicians to bizarre but compelling structures. Nothing here stands out as a weak link - all is as brilliant as it is oddly twisted. Buy it now if you like seriously abstract music.
- CHRIS CUTLER & BOB DRAKE open the album with a blast-fest - a noise poem of distortion, presumably utilising a fastish series of gated sounds. It gains a kind of unearthly composition, with various location sounds and sunken instruments. A very different take on Concrete which has a certain discordant charm.
- FAUST choose a very live-sounding improv which meanders naively, gathering it's non-compromise charm in a kind of extra-terrestrial revisit to back room Hippydom. Space Rock soundcheck recorded on a cheap portable cassette via sewer pipes. Tinny percussion and waves of rolling sustains.
- AMY DENIO & JIM BENNETT play an almost tribal rhythm in the bathroom, slapping the water in fast pattering percussion. A rocking bassy sound (like the lower end of tablas) takes turns with a muted bagpipe (upper end, nix the familiar drones). Effective.
- DILEDADAFISH sound atypically laid-back and moody, combining location 'New Age' birdsounds, and heavenly choirs heard almost mockingly from the bowels of Hell, are set against a fragmented and partly destroyed bass and pondrous snare.
- NOBLE GAS create what is actually a fairly 'normal' rhythm, busy yet passive and calming, seemingly made up of trills and clippy percussion. Seat of the pants, almost Indie Pop stuff with a very Eighties PEELY-friendly 'song' sound.
- UN DRAME MUSICAL INSTANTANE have matured since last I heard them. This again has a lot more formed sound than the earlier tracks. A grand Jazz sound with slightly neurotic trumpet set against a miasmic but tight structure of percussion, noise and (what sounds like) sequencers and samplers. It reminds me a little of MICHAEL NYMAN circa "Prospero's Books" although less straightforward.
- POINTLESS ORCHESTRA create a charming atmosphere on tinkling percussion clouds, a myriad chiming sounds joined by an undeercurrent of sustaining noise. It kind of hangs in the air, neither malign nor benign, an emotional metronome swinging both ways at once.
- LAURIE SPIEGEL takes the previous track's charming atmosphere and slows it down to a descriptive winter wonderland drift, complete with slightly more Industrial-toned synth not unlike that found on VANGELIS's "Blade Runner" soundtrack. This describes the sparkling frost on the vegetation of a very different planet, not cold, but chillingly beautiful.
- STEVE HOROWITZ finishes the album off with a dance-oriented piece of slightly crazy Jazz Rock with voice samples. Calmingly 'normal' after the opening handful of tracks.
A strangely eclectic collection which seems somehow right. From noisy Concrete to MOR middle-class White Boy Hip Hop soft groove, this is a curiosity shop window juxtaposing gaudily-painted piles of human remains with a dusty Playstation. The closest thing I have heard to this collection is the "Memorial Elvis" compilation, but this works far better.
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