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Thread: FEATURED CD - Infidel ? / Castro !: Bioentropic Damage Fractal

  1. #1
    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    FEATURED CD - Infidel ? / Castro !: Bioentropic Damage Fractal



    I'm not a fan of this kind of stuff, as my review shows, but I know many here are into it:
    With writing, with theater, with fine arts, and of course with music, true masters of their art have earned the right to break the rules. They know what works and what doesn't, and if the Picassos of the world choose to paint outside the metaphorical lines of their art or their craft, they do it with a skill and purpose that can yield unexpected and masterful results. Following that Picasso metaphor, Infidel?/Castro! doesn't simply paint outside the lines - they aren't even painting on the canvas. Their paint is splattered on the floor and the ceiling and in their hair - and the bloody canvas is long gone having been hurled belligerently through the window weeks before the piece was even conceptualized.

    Infidel?/Castro! is the 2-man project of George Korein and Colin Marston, and their bio accurately describes their sound as "undefineable and uncatagorizeable". And it is a sound - because if there's one thing missing across the two-CDs and 88-minutes of Bioentropic Damage Fractal, it's music - in the traditional sense of the word. Remember those old fashioned concepts of melody and rhythm? Fugeddaboutit - those things went out the window along with Picasso's canvas. This record is about the dubious art of noise - this the place where violent collisions occur between ambient electronica and fierce experimental noise, between an avant-garde experimental racket and odd acoustic motifs that build mysterious passages of serene minimalism, of the microchip and the analog. Its concepts are progressive though it isn't prog, and it opposes everything traditional though it isn't RIO. It defies genres and description - it is inaccessible, dissonant, algorithm-generated post-rock. This is something - but it ain't music. You listen to music - but you experience this stuff.

    It isn't a vocal piece - there isn't any singing and hence no lyrics. And despite the fleeting appearance of guitars, bass, drums, violin, viola, upright bass and various wind instruments you couldn't call it an all-instrumental piece either. Not with all that sonic clashing. Yet it's a concept piece, and the idea behind the album is bleak and in parts political - although without prose the only way you can follow the theme is by the song titles like "Bedsores for G.W.B." (God,how cheesy), "The Extraction Of Delicate Tissue" and "Temporarily Dissolving Into Plasma During A Moment To One's Self".

    Track 4, "Intrusive Imagination" is 7 minutes of an eerie high pitched industrial-electronic noise. Track 6 "Bedridden" starts 15 minutes into disc 1, and delivers the very first inkling of what most of us would call music. At least - that's true of the first and the last 3 minutes. The middle 3 minutes is another cacophony of clashing diodes - probably the way your computer sounds when it's having a heat seizure. The final 20-minute track on disc 2 is led by a few mournful notes cleanly and repeatedly picked on an acoustic guitar, ending the album on a dark but tranquil note that will leave you wondering - what the hell just happened!

    The two band members each have varying degrees of formal university level music training but you might still wonder if they have any actual musical ability. If they do, it certainly isn't demonstrated here - and it would be interesting to hear these guys inject some real music into this mish-mash - because then we could more easily determine if they're the musical equivalent of Picasso, or if they're just poseurs with more electronic gizmos than imagination. So - do we think it's genius or idiocy? Did we love it or hate it? Should you buy this or avoid it? The answer is ... yes. You have to give these guys credit for having the courage to experiment, to create new sonic concepts that you've never heard before, and for their wild off-the-wall adventurous ideas. But approach it with caution. You might love this stuff. Most people will hate it.
    This genius review can be viewed here:
    http://www.seaoftranquility.org/revi...ontent&id=3468






    Regards,

    Duncan

  2. #2
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    I actually heard this decades ago.

    Colin's done much better things than this.
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  3. #3
    Member zravkapt's Avatar
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    That was interesting but not something I would want to listen to everyday.
    The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    Colin's done much better things than this.
    I perfectly agree. Later stuff is way to prefer.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  5. #5
    Member Digital_Man's Avatar
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    Wow, just a few seconds into it and it sounds like something they would play on WFMU back in the 90's.

  6. #6
    I actually like it.

    Via Googling, also discovered his Byla project on Bandcamp. Lovely stuff.
    If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
    https://battema.bandcamp.com/

    Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com

  7. #7
    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    When I said...
    Quote Originally Posted by Duncan Glenday View Post
    I'm not a fan of this kind of stuff, as my review shows, but I know many here are into it:
    I was thinking of...

    Quote Originally Posted by battema View Post
    I actually like it.
    ^ This guy
    Regards,

    Duncan

  8. #8
    And this guy appreciates it, good sir

    It reminded me of Nurse With Wound in some ways, and I do appreciate that particular sound (I play it in the background in my cube @ work, tends to keep people from lingering for too long ).
    If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
    https://battema.bandcamp.com/

    Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com

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