Filed under: Sound
TOM HALL – FLUERE (CD by Nightrider Records) Australia, I’m sure I noted this before, is from the outside a very vibrant country when it comes to experimental. Here is one Tom Hall, of whom we never heard before, but who got his CD sponsored by the Australian Government, mainly because he does something that relates directly to the country: his ‘Fleure’ CD contains sounds entirely using sounds from Story Bridge in Brisbane. The cars passing and the air that makes the bridge vibrate. Hall picks it up with a couple of microphones all over the construction of the bridge. It’s a bit hard to tell what he does electronically, but I’m sure there is some extreme filtering going, and/or extensive use of computer plug ins, but it enables Hall to move away from the pure sonic landscapes and go into the world of music. If one compares this with say John Hudak ‘Brooklyn Bridge’, then one notices that whereas Hudak makes a highly minimal soundscape, whereas Hall, through his use of loops and electronics has something that gets close the Chain Reaction minimal techno sound. The industrial sounds of the motorway becoming a dance floor. Well, of course not really, but it’s has the muffled, mechanical dance, however with a strong backbeat. Another major difference is that Hall produces nine quite different pieces of music, rather than one long sound scape, which makes this altogether quite a nice, conceptual release that is somehow roughly shaped, but those raw edges adds an extra flavor to it. (FdW) Vital Weekly
TOM HALL – FLOATS (CD, private)
DARREN MCCLURE – SOFTENED EDGES (CDR by The Land Of)
Only quite recently we reviewed the CD ‘Fleure’ by Tom Hall from Australia. That CD used sounds from the Story Bridge in Brisbane. His new CD, ‘Floats’ doesn’t seem to have such a conceptual angle, except that ‘all tracks are extracts from live recording sessions consisting of processed keyboard’. I am not sure if keyboard here is meant to be the same as piano, but somehow I don’t think so. More an electronic keyboard of whatever nature. Things start out alright: glitchy ambient electronics, gliding tones, that sort of thing. Warm, delicate, all those keywords apply here. All fine, but after the fourth track, I sort of thought, it could be using something extra, something to happen, move out of the some sketch like material which remains the same throughout. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen. Things remain the same until the full eight tracks are completed. That is a pity since the material itself, a few pieces are quite alright, but as a whole it didn’t strike me as particular strong.
Normally I don’t lump releases together, but I played the Darren McClure release straight after the one from Tom Hall, and although a bit different in approach, there are also similarities to be spotted. First of the differences, which lie mainly in the use of field recordings. Rain, thunder, voices and tunnel ambience. That is: it’s good that the label informs us of such things, because otherwise we may not have noticed. That’s where the similarities come in: indeed ‘softened edges’ around here indeed. McClure feeds all his sounds through his software and plays around with them in a similar soft, warm, glitchy, careful bath that Hall uses. Although there is more variation around here than on the Hall disc, I couldn’t help noticing that much of it was similar in approach. A few bumps, some light hearted sounds of rain pissing (not pouring) down, a thunder being transformed into a neat drone. Not bad at all, but it’s been done and said before, and that’s a bit of pity. (FdW) Vital Weekly
Available for purchase HERE
