Slow Listener / 14,000,000,000,000 - Split [Bells Hill - 2010]This 3” CD-R, with handmade artwork in a limited edition of 60, sports two tracks that are mildly successful at inspiring curiosity at what full albums from the artists in question would sound like. By themselves, though, they’re only marginal. The fifteen-minute “If At First, Don’t Succeed” by Slow Listener is a meandering, murky-sounding piece on what sounds like solo Farfisa organ, amped into a haze (or maybe just with the mike too close to the grille, you choose). It eventually drops to about half its volume, and finally loses some of its shimmer of haze as it switches to a major key. Fans of Richard Basinski’s synth-based stuff may want to give this a try, but those of you not parched with a thirst for all things drone can steer safely clear.
14,000,000,000,000 (what a name) give us “Fleet of Burmese Freighters in Oceanic Death Crawl Towards Dragon Funeral” (what a title), five minutes of rushing water, plinky acoustic strings, busted drum machine, bad grounding, Morse code, the odd bit of groaning hurdy-gurdy and a bunch of other things that sound like they were salvaged from the closet of the local high school’s music room. The title of the track is more intriguing than anything in it.
   Serdar Yegulalp
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