A few weeks ago, I was playing at the Crude Intentions II festival in the Netherlands, and the line-up also included the Israelian project Kadaver. I’ve known Michael Zolotov a bit longer after meeting him at a festival back in 2013, and we’ve held contact occasionally. In 2018 he and his partner Tamar Singer created the 999 Cuts label, which after a few personal releases, kinda really took off in 2021 with the sampler “The First Cut”. If you are looking for a sampler with deities of noise and power electronics spiced up with many new names you probably have never heard before: This is as good a starting point as it gets. Since that release, 999 Cuts already released 15 other releases, and at the festival, we traded a few items. So even if these titles are from last year, they’re still fresh in my book.
Also, on the 999 Cuts label is a rerelease from N. No, this is not the project by Hellmut Neidhardt, but this is Davide Tozzoli. In 2007 he released a cassette on Nil By Mouth recordings, and here is the rerelease of that cassette on CD. Remastered by Davide himself and with a few additional previously unreleased tracks from the same era. So even if you already have that tape from back then, it’s worth looking into this CD. The music here is a combination of power electronics and noise. Less harsh and cut-up / erratic than K2, which – if we explore N.’s background – is no coincidence. His website http://www.boringnoise.com/ (spoiler alert: his music is not boring at all) has a few words on this, and I’ll copy this. “This is not a music project! The selection of the technical set-up through which sounds are produced is part of the project aesthetic:tTwo empty tape recorders, one connected to the other, without any sound source but only the feedback distortion produced by the tape recorders themselves in play/rec and modulated by rec. Volumes knobs.”
I can’t believe it… If this is all he uses… Holy shit. Amazing. Sounds go all over the place, sometimes as extreme as it gets, other moments subdued and almost ambient. You can hear that tape recorders are involved because of the delay effects and the slow attack and release when turning those knobs. And I wouldn’t be surprised that the set-up from N. is indeed these lonely two tape recorders, and additional sounds are thrown into the symbiotic system to create new sounds and layers. But really, this is an album that will open the eyes and ears of those who work with a set-up like this. I’m about as impressed as possible.
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