The first CDR opens with “More Grief”, a harsh noise piece with a slight tendency to power electronics, combined with angry vocals at the right places. This makes me long for being there and having witnessed the performance. But after this track, something changes. From “Pine Needles”, all the tracks have live drums with shitloads of rhythmic improv and angry voices. Yet none of the tracks are the same. It’s not a repeated composition that has been played and is crystallized over the different performances. For example, ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ continues in the same style, but it’s more going towards a feedback party.
Then, at track four—’ Garden’—something changes, and a deep synth sound opens the track. Maybe the fifth and final track of this CDR (“The Long Road”) is from that same performance, but again, here is the chaos, very intrusive again.
The second CDR has three a bit longer tracks. The longest on the first CD was 10 minutes; on the second, they’re roughly 11, 13 and 21 minutes. “A Swaying Tree” is the opener, and the drums are pretty mixed to the front here (or the noise has more significant moments of being in the back). It shows the musicians’ capability and the collective dynamics very well. On ‘Empty Fields’, the drums, as we just heard so powerful, are absent, and the result is an angry noise track with moments of drones and minimal rhythmic structures created otherwise. And finally ‘Our Place’, 21 minutes of the most intrusive sounds you’ve heard on this +DOG+-tour. Again without drums, but with the harsh noise and feedback clusters you’ve tried not to hear before. Brilliant. After attending a concert like this, you can respectfully say, ‘your mind has been blown’. Either way, clear a small tube with some dust or vice versa, like nuclear bombs and stuff.
The whole release might have been recorded during various shows, but it is one massive session of Steve, with or without family, getting together and creating the most intense improv noise you’ve heard in a long time. Sharing a stage, relentless, nothing to make or keep anybody happy, no sweet spots, no recognition, no rest for the wicked. Harsh, in-your-face, shocking sounds create a sonic, chaotic universe to lose yourself. Oh, and the digital download has a free extra 20-minute track. And I won’t write about that; you have to find out yourself.
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