Ativin

Ativin
Summing the Approach (1998)
Secretly Canadian
Bloomington, IN



Originally I intended to write about German Water, the near perfect full-length and big brother to this remarkable EP. But I found Summing the Approach late last night wooing me like an old decadent habit.
-
Cy
Riding and Roaming
Summing the Approach
My Eyes of Yours
-
With only four tracks it still manages to capture the tension and spookiness of German Water. You could say it achieves this by kidnapping all of the bratty whiny children of Spiderland and in their place substituting a team of masked assassins with roboticly precise trigger fingers. You'll notice how well the EP has built upon it's influences in "Cy", the opener, almost immediately with it's stuttering rhythms, subtle howls, and stretches of quiet, quiet guitar. I've always looked upon "Riding and Roaming", the following track, as a masterpiece of composition and mood, and you can certainly hear elements of "For Dinner..." in it's final moments of non-crescendo. But I am definitely not one to tax a band for building on the ideas of Slint. If you are, it's probably because you're upset Ativin got there first. Sucker.

Recorded by S. Albini', two guitars, drums.

Listen to "Cy" from this EP and other tracks here. Or at Epitonic.

Brise-Glace

Brise-Glace

When in Vanitas (1994)

Skin Graft Records

.

Only a few weeks ago Skingraft records found an old box of LP's that had been returned by a European distributor for having experienced some minor damage. The copies went quick but I was lucky enough to grab one. Since then I've been listening to it rather steadily, possibly appreciating it now a bit more as a record.

.

I'd say 3/5 of this record is noise, layered thickly but discriminately, to simulate perhaps some crudely industrial pre-apocolyptic offworld megalopolis. At least that's what I hear. Woven into Jim O'Rourke's craters and tunnels of sound is the unmatchable instrumentation of Darin Grey and Thymme Jones on bass and drums which propels this record beyond being just a supergroup project, but a definite trendsetter, the pioneering icon which all other noise-drenched records to come will imitate. Recorded by Steve Albini, it consists of five tracks at about fifty minutes.

.

Here is the opening track.

Colossamite

Colossamite

Economy of Motion (1998)

Skin Graft Records

.

Dazzling Killmen are quite possibly responsible for creating music's greatest family tree of their decade. A sizable chunk of my favorite records are post-DK projects by bassist Darin Grey (Brise-Glace, Grand Ulena, You Fantastic!), while drummer Blake Flemming's Laddio Bolocko was also mind-blowing, and Nick Sakes' vocal and guitar performance on Colossamite's All Lingo's Clamor EP was certainly impressive. But perhaps the most surreal of all the Killmen's grandchildren is Colossamite's only full-length LP and wayward trip around the bend, Economy of Motion.

.

Not quite a total wreck, there are recognizable 'songs' with definite melodies, carved by an assault of three guitar's noisy ranting and a lawless drumkit. Yet the bulk of the record rests delicately on a sort of unstable precipice of sanity, and with each trip to this crackling threshold you are accompanied by an untamed vocal tour guide, who, even if completely mad, you must admit has an undeniable knack for The Word. And then suddenly, by the fourth track, you have veered off-course, and have found yourself on a slow and strange journey into the center of a massive pressure-cooker. (No doubt you are wondering what the fuck I am talking about, but hear the record and you shall be set free.) And then, just as suddenly, you're back in the heart some Spanish-Language Dadaist Word-Museum Civil War where the narrator implores you to "Make it simple. Like an Orange. Not like a toilet."

.

This toying with the boundaries takes place for under forty minutes, and perhaps reaches a climax of sorts on 'Tooth of Davinci", which can be downloaded here at Epitonic. Otherwise you can find the record's opener, "Hothouse", here, along with "Arkansas Halo". "Pee Dio" and "Busy Little Hands" off the record are also currently available, in addition to other downloads, at this fansite.

.

Skin Graft Records still has the CD and LP available.

Gorge Trio

Gorge Trio
Dead Chicken Fear No Knife (1998)
Free Land Records
Out Of Print



Dead Chicken was put to tape by 3/4 of the band Colossamite in order to tread where that band would not, if you can imagine that. Gorge Trio would ultimately find even more bizarre things to do in the studio, with a series of improvised collaborations over the next decade, but Dead Chicken archives the trio creating their only record in which the songs were premeditated, rehearsed, and perhaps even replicated live.
.
Recorded in the same year as Colossamite's pivotal masterpiece of insanity, the record naturally shares some likeness to Economy of Motion, but is somehow allowed to wander unlike it's counterpart. Whereas Colossamite seemed to have fully intended to create a particular album, Gorge Trio was not so protective of the outcome on Dead Chicken. It still champions that furiously clean Rodriguez/Dieterich guitar tone, along with that notoriously spastic clamour that is Chad Popple on the drumkit, but the song structures are wide-open, allowed to breathe, perhaps so much that they unravel, fall apart, or even lose their identities wholly. They may become rants of noise or evolve into unforeseen things. All in all, one of the finest examples of what can be done with a couple of guitars and a drumkit.
.
Dead Chicken Fear No Knife is currently out of print. The CD occasionally pops up on Ebay for under 20 bones, or just email me and I'll upload it.
.
Here are 5 tracks from the album.