It took three years of writing for Vital Weekly to receive an album, of which I have absolutely no clue what to write, or where even to start. My goal for this review is to explore why, because that exploration/research might tell you if this album is something for your collection.
This album has two tracks by two artists. So it’s not a collaboration or something, but it’s a split. The first track is by Gabi Losoncy, and I couldn’t find anything about her. She’s part of the project Good Area, which released its latest one on the IDEAL label, but that was already 8 years ago. Hiatus? Solo, she had 24 releases according to Discogs, and next to two splits with The Rita, there was also a release on Lake Shark Harsh Noise, which is connected to The Rita. The track “Condo Panther” consists of recordings done with NHL regulation hockey sticks and pucks indoors (this also goes for the next track, by the way). And that’s about it. I would describe it as field recordings, somehow; not much is done with the tapes, it seems. And it lasts for almost 15 minutes.
The second track is by Sam McKinlay a.k.a The Rita from Vancouver, Canada. Not gonna write too much about him because if you made it this far, you already know (of) him. Everything I know by his hand is HNW or just harsh noise, so I was surprised when I heard this track. “Sherwood Stick, Blues Puck” is 20 minutes of someone hitting a puck with a stick, and it’s recorded and amplified. At some point, I felt the urge to put the audio file into my software and see if it was all different recordings and hits or if there were some repeats. But I didn’t do it. When you don’t think about it, it’s just a field recording with a bit more amplification in comparison to Gabi’s track.
Two thoughts kept going through my head before I started on the following review. First: In what kind of space was this recorded, because it’s ONLY the puck and the stick you hear. And secondly, but I had a discussion with somebody last weekend about it, I couldn’t help thinking what an artist like Aube could have done with the source material, ‘NHL regulation hockey sticks and pucks’. Now THAT would have been interesting.
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