The fun thing about reviewing is the sometimes completely unknown stuff you get to review. This is also, at moments, the curse because it can be really shitty, but hey! I started this review with ‘fun’ so yeah, “Void Pusher” by the utterly unknown Point of Memory, about whom I wasn’t able to find anything online, definitely falls in the ‘holy shit, this stuff is amazing’-category. Over an hour of music on CD and cassette and if you found the 2LP version, even an extra track which is vinyl only, that track isn’t even included in the digital version, which I am currently listening to. And their website mentions the words ‘Point of Memory is completely anonymous’; Even IF I knew who was behind this, I probably wouldn’t tell you. Some Secrets are best kept secret.
“Void Pusher” is released on the Texan Misanthropic Agenda label by Gerritt Wittmer. Quite some heavy stuff on there, like Merzbow, Lockweld, LHD and Sissy Spacek, but it’s not all noise. And this release is maybe the best proof of it. The website, as well as the promo, tells us a lot about the process of how this album was created. All generated sounds were played into a room and were rerecorded before being used in a composition. And that’s where the concept becomes interesting for ‘freaks like us’ (read: nerds like me). We all know a little bit about resonance. It’s the frequency of materials or objects. Every object has a frequency hidden inside itself; it’s why glasses break with the right pitch, it’s why bridges collapse, and it’s when the snares of a snare drum start trembling or the windows rattle. Rerecording (electronically generated) sounds before using them will give the original sounds extra layers because of these added artefacts, Even though maybe the finesses of the actual sound are a bit less because they leave the digital domain (filtered), harmonics get added through rerecording them.
Musically, we’re talking gorgeous ambient here, lively, organic sounds, some oh-so-minimal noise, some recognizable instruments like the guitars in “Doom’s Hand Reaching For Your Moment Of Triumph”, but it’s all an intense atmosphere of maybe a couple of friends locked up in a cabin in the woods, writing a soundtrack for the time they’re spending together. In this case, it just wasn’t a couple of friends, but one determined unknown human who wanted to make a beautiful album.
Comments
Post a Comment