N O P A R T O F I T

N O   P A R T   O F   I T
Far more important than baking bread is the urge to take dough -beating to the extreme - Otto Muehl

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Proto-futur


NOPARTOFIT.BANDCAMP.com

Also on the horizon (pre-order), we have some new releases and perhaps the first NO PART OF IT "batch" (if you must) available as a tentative "PRE ORDER"...   Everything is done, there may be room for cosmetic adjustments.   These are $7 postage paid in the USA, $12 ppd in Canada and Mexico, and $17 ppd rest of the world.  Paypal can be made to nopartofit at gmail dot com.  PRE ORDER.  These will ship on or before MAY 13th, 2016.



Ataraxic Ataxia - "Shadow Sea"



Reissued from a very limited CDr on Side of the Sun Recordings, more than half a decade ago, Ataraxic Ataxia is a duo of electronics and violin by Dominick Dufner and Nicole Pizzato.  Unlike many combos like this, there is a unique delivery of organic, true industrial noise mannerisms that only could have come from this configuration.  It is not simply the dialed in ambiance of strings.   The beauty and grit of this release is not only palpable, but also sort of regenerating and constantly transforming.  The rest is enshrouded in mystery.   Ataraxic Ataxia has done a recycled cassette on RRRECORDS and a few low profile releases, like an extremely limited 3 inch CDR that comes with a post card from the 30s, for instance.  Dufner's solo project, Sigulda, was absolutely thrilling at Neon Marshmallow Fest in 2010, using MINIMAL electronics.  This application with the expert use of string instruments by Nicole Pizzato is not to be missed.  49 minutes.


   
Thirteen Hurts - "UVB-76"



 Thirteen Hurts is a recording artist named Richard Adams who has performed at Denver Noise Fest a few times, as well as Norcal Noise Fest, and in one instance, he drove over 2,000 miles to play St. Petersburg Noise Fest.  At that time, he lived in a solar powered home in rural Colorado, 6 hours from any form of civilization.  I imagined him in some sort of geodesic dome listening to numbers stations and Coast To Coast AM with only the cold, dead air of winter, and hitherto useless power lines in the distance to accompany it.

      Thirteen Hurts live was also quite a surprise.  Whenever I see about 30 pedals sitting on a table, I always assume that there's going to be a great deal of muddy, buzzing garbage to endure, but not in this case.  Each time I saw this phenomena, there was such a level of control and focus,  also accompanied by a casual, playful demeanor, that it looked like that of a practiced, serious scientist, or maybe a "rocket surgeon" would be a better term.  The assurance that this person could fix a car or save a life while laughing, chatting, and gesticulating, came to mind.  The man was like a ninja with his pedals, building little ditties and then destroying them with epic blasts of clearly articulated,  yet cataclysmic, disastrous noise.

     It's only appropriate then, that NO PART OF IT is releasing UVB-76, an album inspired by a Russian shortwave radio signal whose origin has never been found, and whose communications have been poured over and analyzed for decades.  Naturally, much (actually about half, I'm told) of the source material is from radios, and certainly there will be some segments of this release that the kids will call "brutal!" and "sick!", but the depth and range of this release, like the two Thirteen Hurts CDs before them, is unprecedented.   The attention to detail is without comparison.  Each track is amounts to prime numbers.  At times, layers of heavily panned electric rhythms dance in and out of sync while what sounds like dying drip-drop synth burble cascades in and out of the picture.  At other times, it sounds like the sci-fi soundtrack to an animal stalking its prey, despite ominous, disruptive climate patterns.  Brooding, creeping static pulses punctuate swarms of oscillating ghost hiss.  Musique Concret glossolalia meets high-speed cut-up squealing robot ganglia.  With what seems like a minimal approach, "UVB-76" runs the gamut.  Each track is rich and unique, and any two tracks would compliment eachother as sides on a stellar 7 inch.    66 minutes in duration, and not a moment is wasted.





Blood Rhythms - "Heuristics"



   One day it dawned on me that tons of material over the last 15 years had sort of grown an organic cohesiveness to it that is suitable to be looked at together, both backward and forward.   In 2004, I had a dream about a child going through what could be said of a certain toad; that if you put a toad in a pot of water and slowly boil it, this toad would adapt and survive.  If you put a toad in an already boiling pot of water, it would die immediately.   In my dream, I saw a child suddenly being immersed in a similar fluid, causing him to grow up immediately.  When he did grow up so abruptly, the result was a person with writing all over his body and black tar coming out of his mouth.   Like the Empress in the tarot, this child lept forward from virginity to creativity.  I made this photo shoot happen with my friend and photographer, Iris B., and I never knew what I was going to do with it.  At one point, I thought it would be an exhibition of photography.   Eventually, though, it dawned on me to de-saturate and sort of purify the images and use it to frame this material.

This material, ranging from 2000-2015, represents a lot of things I sort of hoped would be on 7 inches or prestigious compilations, or they were criminally under-released, perhaps prematurely.  For instance, I went to a piano class at a local community college to learn just one song; "Viper's Drag" by Fats Waller.  My final exam was to be able to get through the first page of written music, and I did it, like a gallivanting jalopy and a horse-drawn carriage of maddening, youthful frustration.   My version, "Maggot's Drag (Notte Del Casu Marzu)" tells a short horror story of killer flying maggots.  It was meant for a "monster music" compilation I was curating, that was more or less sabotaged by a cover artist whom I paid in advance, who didn't deliver for over two years.  I got my money back after a fair amount of doin', but the steam I did not.

Also in the picture, is the audio for a performance I did with Right-Eye Rita on 06/06/2006, at a party I curated with  Betty DeVoe.  It  was a ritual performance called "The Stifling Air", supposedly based on some works by Jacques De Molay, Grandmaster of the Knights Templar in the 13th Century.  It included a custom made coffin and a nude model, and a king.  I always felt it needed to reside somewhere, but only now did it make sense to put it somewhere.  I could have produced the piece yesterday.

Some of my early performances exhibited a variant amount of sound structures, with me screaming the words "Remove All Doubt" over it until I felt like my vocal chords were bleeding.   Featured here is one such piece, some of my more musical work.

 There is also a track, "Mention This", featuring the vocals of Atalee Judy, a woman who was a kind and passionate supporter and friend early on.  She'd given me a cassette of a'capella recordings, and I was inspired for weeks to create music to them.  In this case, prior to knowing anything really about experimental music, I made music that is still bizarre, even to me now.  Screeching synth-cellos and heavily effected broken glass, sampler percussion, among many other things, provided a back-drop for Judy's incredible voice.  I once played this track to a man who did sound engineering for radio plays, and he said I'd achieved sounds and dynamic stereo ranges that he wouldn't understand how to do.  Maybe he was just being nice.

 Another track features Nikola Vasilic, where he and I did another piece for a Halloween compilation, with piano, organ, and lots of samples from horror movies.   Yet another track was made by me with harmonica, bass guitar, sampler, vocals, and masochistic microphone abuse.  I could go on and on.  There is a story to every piece, and it is a diverse listen for sure.  It is 60 minutes in duration, and I humbly suggest you give it  a try.




Arvo Zylo - "Hello Walls"


This strange album was originally released on cassette by the very discriminate and taste-making Enemata Productions.   Then again, it was reissued on cassette two years later, in a black vinyl bag with three full color post cards, a page from a book in German that I'd found in an abandoned church, probably from the 19th century, and dirt from various places, namely, the notoriously haunted Bachelor's Grove Cemetery.  Naturally, the moisture caused the tape to rot, but even before that, I was getting eerie reports of tapes being "completely blank".  Even so, while the decay did lend a certain something to the experience, if not the physical detritus, it also limited the range of that experience. 

 This material is not for everyone.  I made it in a sitting of about 36 hours straight, at my friend's studio space, "Scab Labs", with mostly voice, an SS330 keyboard, a sampler, field recordings from a construction site, destroyed tapes, and a bunch of EVP that I'd recorded from Coast to Coast AM, in real time, the old fashioned way, for the most part.  For me, it brings to mind Giusto Pio's "Motore Immobile" at times, and at other times well, "autistic" is the only word I could use to describe it.  It could be haunting, it could be my soundtrack for the times I spent the night at the aforementioned Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, or it could be just an unusually precocious lo-fi dark-ambient album made by a somewhat high-strung person with not much of an ability to sit still long enough to be truly ambient. 

 It comes off as minimal, but there are sometimes an excessive amount of layers.  In the case of the title track, there were over 150 tracks used in various mixdown sessions.   I'd say this is best listened to in a solitary environment, preferably outside, and in the dark. Is it still possible to do that?  If not, a boiler room from a building built in the 20s or before would do.    Approximate running time is around 70 minutes.    


IN OTHER NEWS




I was a guest on WZRD yet again, on leap day.  I had an especially fun time, mixing various sorts of excitable messery.  Some artists that crept in were Kenny Loggins' early stuff, Dusty Springfield's synth pop phase, Skinny Puppy's rushed and spacious album, Neil Young's Kraftwerkian experiment, Alvin Stardust's all-encompassing bouffant-meisterisms, Warren Zevon's song with lyrics by Hunter S. Thompson, A couple of Steven Stapleton's favorites, Art Zoyd's alternate Nosferatu soundtrack, and more!  DIG IT

I am very grateful for the following people who have taken the time to air and review NO PART OF IT releases....



WILT was aired again on a noise-focused edition on Wm. Berger's My Castle of Quiet Radio Show.  "Moon Diver".   Also in there was a soon-to-be-released cassette on Phage Tapes, SWOLLEN ORGANS, plus Kakerlak, Bretwaldas of Heathen Doom, Whitehouse, and lots of obscure gems (check out that Terrine track!), as usual.

A REVUE OF "333" SURFACED FROM TRAUMATIC STATIC!

ARVO ZYLO - 333 - CD
NO PART OF IT RECORDS
EXPERIMENTAL NOISE/HARSH NOISE/INDUSTRIAL/GLITCH
PRO PRESSED CDR IN A JEWEL CASE WITH INSERT.


I.) QUICKSAND EGGS OF A BEATEN PATHOS:
Even if I hadn't heard ARVO ZYLO's music before (I've heard one
release up until this point) It would be pretty obvious from the
album art that it was going to be a strange experience. The layout
art of 333 looks like a surrealist nightmare featuring images of 
scorched industrial landscapes populated by featherless chickens,
A small brass ensemble, Cars floating among clouds (As well as 
mushroom clouds on the horizon) Angelic statues and castle ruins
and beggars digging through piles of rubble...So yeah we are in
for a crazy trip..."Quicksand Eggs Of A Beaten Pathos" opens the
record and carries along the weird surrealist overtones of the album.
This track is around half an hour long so strap in. Slow throbbing
drum/bass rhythms guide us into creeping and sinister Electro-Industrial
patterns. Harpsichords play along and glitchy, warped synths add a plethora
of strange and unnerving elements. Chaotic pulses and signals fill the air
and then all Hell breaks loose. An all out high end noise fist-fuck quickly
becomes and aural gang-bang. Frantic noise with a very unique sonic quality
is heard over slow booming bass drum kicks. Unnerving to say the least. This
would literally drive someone outside of the noise scene fucking crazy. Even 
the most bizarre Japanoise act could seem relatively calm in comparison to
the insanity that ARVO ZYLO manages to conjure up. Shrill signals drill into
your skull, Rumbling electronic waves vibrate the brain and corrosive static
textures scrape like a dry old sponge across your eyeballs. You can literally
"feel" the sounds inside you at times. After some added percussive blasts we
go into a lo-fi area of audio murk featuring dismal piano playing that sounds
like a Phantom of the Opera type of character playing away in a dark, Dingy
basement in the bowels of a haunted mansion over a backdrop of whirring electronic
experimentation. The piano notes begin to glitch and somehow start to sound even
more ominous. Spacey keyboard notes, Thick bass lines, Every manner of beep and
bloop, Carnival organ grinders, Powerful slamming drum rhythms, Harmony, Melody,
Disharmony and atonal chaos all come, shift and morph. Mid-paced Electro-Doom
passages march on and send us deeper down a spiral staircase of utter madness.
Rhythms within rhythms and patterns within patterns. It is impossible to describe
everything featured here. Bubbling textures, Break-Beat percussion's that sound
like Speedcore in slow motion...Elements of Techno, Ambient, Experimental, Noise,
Industrial, Trance, Acid-Tech, House, And just about every other form of Electronic
music are present. It's really one giant digital head-fuck. Various passages are 
highlighted for extended periods...Some longer than others, But all interesting
to the ears. The quieter and denser segments explore Death Industrial and Harsh
Ambiance until they eventually too fall into experimental territory. At times
we go into fragmented Cyberpunk style synth work and at other's it sounds like
a Nintendo game on LSD. Warped, Wonky Techno parts carry on the drug use aesthetic.
Like I said...It's a trip...And then some. 

II.) DEADBEAT DELUXE:
If you've made it this far, We go into "Deadbeat Deluxe" where we are treated
to: Stop/go patterns that come in loud barrages as Harsh Noise outbursts form
a nice rhythm to accompany them. It sounds like a very broken machine attempted
to start up to no avail until dis-harmonic madness comes in looped segments only
to splinter off into fragmented 90's style underground Techno. Dance-able segments
and thick bass lines come and go as caustic explosions boom in the near distance.
Classic 8-bit video game style synths are tossed into the mix along with various
other synths that come in hazy, Lo-fi and distorted tones. The rhythms formed are
pretty cool and definitely keep it interesting. A lot of this sounds like the crazy
music they play on Adult Swim really late at night in-between shows or similar to those
"Cows and Cows and Cows" videos on YouTube. Other moments take us into pure mechanized Industrial that sounds like heavy pistons and steam powered machines marching across the landscape and pressing everything into a pancake. This eventually slows into scrap metal percussion's over
pure sonic experimentation. The slower pace gives you a chance to collect your wits before we
head into a really cool Nightcore/Techno/DnB/Glitch movement features playful, Cartoon melodies
and a really nice ever-evolving groove to it. Later on this transforms into dense rhythmic noise
that still carries similar patterns although they are rough, muffled and obscured. After a while
it becomes entrancing and right when you are hooked into it's lull we are hit by heavy Industrial
once again which makes for a brief, But awesome ending to the piece.

III.) PLASTHMA:
"Plasthma" starts in a similar place where the last track left off. Humming machines,
Metallic drum loops, Crisp static waves, Thundering sheet metal percussive elements,
Break-Beat/glitch drums...All that good stuff in a really nice blend. Things soon
become more frantic but without abandoning the initial rhythms. Sci-Fi/Space noise
tones come and go and switch and change. Although ARVO ZYLO can be quite busy and
overbearing at times and a complete sensory overload, There are still some really
cool moments for those who are looking for something a little less hectic. This 
last track sounds a lot more "mechanical" it it's madness and really demonstrates
a style that I rarely hear anymore these days. If you are into stuff like IN DEATH
IT SEARCH OF DEATH, BODY SHAME, and similar artists than this is worth checking out.
This track eventually goes into this almost orchestral/symphonic movement with very
doomy/eerie vibes. Cinematic stuff that has a spooky feeling to it. Kinda like an
old 70's or 80's Slasher B-movie soundtrack. The types of chord progression's that
you'd hear on a KING DIAMOND record. The synths used go from campy to haunting and
back again. Early Industrial style drums and slightly distorted lead notes give this
one a solid finish.

ARVO ZYLO ARE IN THEIR OWN GENRE. ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE PROJECTS IN THE
NOISE SCENE. CHECK EM OUT:

FIVE NO PART OF IT RELEASES WERE REVIEWED BY LOST IN A SEA OF SOUND!  


Illusion of Safety - Surrender

With the world getting more and more crowded, the collective consciousness is hopefully increasing to a higher vibration. Music has a special ability to push this process faster down the path. This album titled Surrender by Illusion of Safety throws the listener around the sun in a gravitational slingshot. The frequencies are soaring and minds will be untethered from their snug mortal coils.

Dan Burke, the person responsible of Illusion of Safety has created a sonic world simultaneously living in many places. Surrender touches the ambient world of drone and peaks though with industrial constitution. This duality of drone and abiotic field noises provides the nourishment for a subdued organic harmony to flourish. As the composition moves through it's course, a sense settles in of how well everything is put together. Opposing genres, both almost lifeless in their own respects, creating a harmonic consciousness with limitless possibilities. Beats and samples grow then fade away to dusty porches with a single tattered wind chime clanging in the swirling atomic dust. Mutated insects swarm and devour the earth emitting noises like Viking hoards piercing the fog on to shore. Then into space and beyond, droning over time until future planets fall in the path. With the entire score on compact disc, the sound quality gives the complete album the sharpness it needs to vault your speakers into organic vestibules. Surrender drips with life, undiscovered and completely fresh.

This has been released on No Part Of It. A label that started off in a different direction than the dogma of our digital world demands. Now swinging around and making Illusion of Safety easier to hear and discover. Available on compact disc from the labels site or bandcamp page. Surrender definitely has talent behind it's making, maybe so much this could still be beyond it's time.




Links
No Part Of It site - bandcamp
Illusion of Safety site 

Arvo Zylo - 333

Arvo Zylo is a mysterious cat that must have razor sharp shaped blood cells. His music crosses over into a world of jagged noise and chaotic intensity. I always thought it was interesting how old punk songs are now music used for everyday commercials. I do not think Arvo will need to worry about this in any near future. 333 pulls the ripcord and plunges from the earth's surface going to it's core.

Three tracks at almost an hour. Somewhere in the first track you will be checking to see if your speakers are blown. After this, the second song "Deadbeat Deluxe" sounds like a reprieve. Actually though, more like music for an alternate dimension of "Bugs Bunny" cartoons. Slowly building quirky processes, all foreign in understanding. Industrial music fed by space mushrooms and super caffeinated robot energy packs. Being able to sustain these sound processes is what makes the difference. Lasting long enough to provide impact and giving sense of the rhythm within, then changing and becoming new again. By the third track, the music becomes more spaced out. The processes are lengthier and almost touch into drone world. They never really do though, maybe the intensity knob is turned back to eight instead of ten. The consciousness of Arvo Zylo is a special place indeed. His talent rest in harnessing this swirling cacophony, pulling forth feelings in the form of sound and focusing it long enough to capture for others to hear.

This is released on the No Part Of It record label.  Not sure how old or new 333 is. It is available through Arvo's discogs page along with an assorted mix of other releases. 333 is pretty intense in the beginning and works itself into being a well rounded composition.



Links
No Part Of It site - bandcamp

Arvo Zylo / Dental Work - Velcro Bismal

Cutting deep into unknown metallic like material, Velcro Bismal is a sheer force of sound. Turned to a loud enough volume, a vaporizing beam aimed directly into your cerebral cortex. Arvo Zylo takes the sounds of Dental Work an experimental sound group from Detroit with ties to Chicago, pulls, plucks and pinches them into something more or something less.

Moving from rhythmic shape of steel belt iron production to cataclysmal melt down of Three Mile Island, Velcro Bismal ebbs and flows from factory made steadiness to sheer turbulence. As the composition moves forward, Arvo takes haven in the title track. Maybe this is what break time sounds like in his mind. Swirling sounds dancing in the distance, none ready to be touched only engaged at the reach they present themselves. The last two tracks exemplify the ability of Arvo to create new worlds of sound. For many, these are places you would never want to visit, but for the stalwart listeners this is the realm of the "in between noise and industrial".  Difficult to maintain the balance without becoming to methodical or chaotic altogether.

This was released last year in October and is available on the No Part Of It bandcamp page. The cover art is for a series of collages project Arvo did. This is available as well in various forms.



Links
No Part Of It site - bandcamp


WILT - Nocturnal Requiem

I am staring at a map of the Hunnic Empire around 450AD. The movement of the Huns throughout what is now Europe becomes alive. Their conquests and sufferings burn into your thoughts augmented by Nocturnal Requiem playing as the map animates itself. WILT, the project of James Keeler, is grandiose in scope like the conquest of Attila. For some, like the Huns, beautiful and awakening while others, whose land is fertile, evoke shuddersome feelings of a dire world slipping from their grasps.

Nocturnal Requiem is somewhere near an hour of ambient beauty from bleakness. A sonic world the listener falls into, landing on some isolated outcropping and unable to move or touch anything. The sounds of this world are intense and mysterious and permeate your lonely position from every direction. As the title states, this is a requiem, but all things concerning the repose of dead souls do not have to be bleak or disheartening. Nocturnal Requiem could be heard from a conduit connecting the underworld, but for others, simply sounds of the world just outside your body. James definitely has the talent and ability to make this listening experience exceptionally beautiful. He also delivers this composition directly in the center of the field, allowing many different feelings to expand in any direction. Dense pastoral scenes of realities in some flux of experience. Never jagged or piercing, more vast and expansive like amber skies just before the color goes away or moonlit valleys where distance and definition blur into the night.

This is out on the No Part Of It label. Recorded a few years ago, but just released in December of 2015. The digital download has three more tracks than the compact disc. The cd sounds really good though and will be a beautiful composition to return to for many future listens.




Links
No Part Of It site - bandcamp
WILT site - bandcamp


Arvo Zylo - Sequencer Works Volume Two

Sequencer Works is an interesting output from Arvo Zylo. An earlier work not anywhere near the industrial noise scope of some of his more recent releases. This cassette was just released at the end of last year but was recorded over ten years ago. This is similar to controlled bedlam, sounds recorded like pictures being taken of an entire assembly factory, all moving parts on one expansive image. As you look at the details of this snapshot, you can hear each individual process sustained clearly and exactingly.

Nine tracks, all titled the same with their corresponding track number. Around sixty minutes of music pouring expansive sonic variations from your speakers. Rhythms and beats sometimes noisy and violent other times subtle and subdued. Like a trip through a carnival both nightmarish and joyful simultaneously.

This is out on the No Part Of It label and available at their bandcamp page. Songs over driven into a world blurring reality and mental thresholds.





Links
No Part Of It site - bandcamp


A track from Upheaval was aired on Little Fyodor's "Under The Floorboards" radio show on KGNU!

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