Pumpkin Buzzard - Sweat Angle [Jeshimoth - 2012]Missouri based Pumpkin Buzzard enjoy screwing with the listeners head with their crazed & often off-kilter genre mixing. Since the early 2000’s they have released albums at a prolific rate, and each new release has seen them darted-into, or mixing together all manner of musical genres. “Sweat Angle” sees them offering another bizarre if not wholly successful dart into the of world of experimental electronic improvisation. The pro pressed CDR release offers up a fifty track album that is basically made up of seeming random synth runs, whooshes & darts. And these are mixed with electro juddering, pulls, drags & darts, which from time to time have weird voices/ effects & vague darts of instrumental melody running through them too. These tracks each run between the minute to near on two minute mark, and each of the tracks title either features the word 'Angel' in it, or they sound like cheesy easy listening/ love song titles. I’ve now played this album over five or six times fully, and I’m afraid to say there seems no rhyme, reason or structure to any of it. I’m all for creative & well put together electro improvising, but this just feels like they’ve just recorded a series of electronic sounds/ textures & thrown them together in a random/ haphazard manner-with none of it been very rewarding, clever or memorable. I’ve very enjoyed much of this projects past work, but I’m afraid to say this release does not have any redeeming sides to it, and it’s really an insult to those out there who have made a craft of electronic improvisation. Roger Batty
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