Chicago-based Ballast, or better said Chicago-based Blake Edwards or maybe better said Chicago-based project Vertonen... Whatever, it's just words. Blake Edwards is Vertonen and has a label called Ballast. And he releases some weird stuff on there, limited as hell, little handmade pieces of art and what's most important - so consider acting very fast if you ever read something about a release you want in your collection - there are NO digital versions available. Well, *that* Blake sent us the latest releases from his label, and I have the pleasure of writing a bit about them.
The second Ballast release is by Dead Edits, a project by Erik Lunde and Blake Edwards - their tenth release. Almost an hour of tracks which could form the basics of power electronics if not for the absence of lyrics. "Karaoke Power Electronics" is a conceptual release, which is precisely what the title implies. The website gives a few examples, the first of which is, "if you’re driving and some fellow driver makes a particularly thoughtless gesture, instead of road rage, pop in this recording and create your own power electronics track with vocals dedicated to that person". Now that sounds actually like fun.
The second example is "hosting a noise-themed karaoke party at your house". In all honesty, it's not that this particular release would trigger that. I've been to many noise parties at people's places before this record was in Eric's or Blake's mind. But the third example raises a question: "... or use the tracks in a live performance ..." Blake, is this an invitation? Can we send you tracks from performances based on these recordings, and will you do something with them? I mean... This is a limited edition of 25 copies. If they're all sold, and half of the people will do this, it very probably *would* make an excellent new release ;-)
So as said, it's an hour of sounds: Heavy electronic sounds with sometimes lots of modulation, occasionally 'just' brutal. Although I must say, I don't know if I would call them Power Electronics as the genre because I believe that the genre follows a certain set of rules, and these sounds - as gorgeous and well thought of as they might be - don't fit the description I have in my head. But it's, without doubt, some really powerful electronics.
To sum things up: You're not only getting a CDR with an hour of sounds, you're also getting a 12" with it !!! It might be made of cardboard, but it's round. It doesn't have any grooves but well... I suspect then if (when?) you play it... The record might produce some great noise.
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