Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Various Artists - George Ferguson McKeating [Bells Hill - 2009]

This two disc compilation is named after music journalist Scott McKeating’s father who passed away in 2007 following a typically sudden and brief struggle with pancreatic cancer. All proceeds from its sale go to the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund and all artists have donated exclusive tracks to the release that sewed the seed for McKeating’s Bells Hill label. The release largely maps out a loose family of free improv rock artists mainly based in Northern Britain, most of which orbit each other in a collaborative spirit encouraging experiments with noise and drones.

Arguably the most prolific artists from this fertile scene, Richard Youngs, Neil Campbell and Matthew Bower, are all featured before we’re halfway through the first CD. Richard Youngs duets with the precociously talented percussionist Alex Neilson on ‘It’s all Waves’, a folksy song full of subtle eddying currents played on a salty organ with splashing cymbals and irregular fills. Neil Campbell’s Astral Social Club builds a tunnel of raw, heavily distorted psychedelic rock barely contained by a stubborn piano, while Matthew Bower, appearing as Mirag, forges layers of fuzz guitar frequencies from a relentless furnace hissing and spitting as sweat hits its churning, hot liquid metal.

Another major presence here is that of the members of Jazzfinger, whose Hasan Gaylani closes the first disc with the chaotic ‘There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West’, which sounds like toy piano tones coated in a tinniness that merges everything into a cacophonous whole, masking a sad melody of low wailing. Elsewhere, the other members of the trio, Ben Jones and Sarah Sullivan, under the guise of ‘Mechanical Children’, also revel in tinniness setting the boiling whistle of a kettle against a swirling tone generator. The group come together to open the second disc with a similarly messy exercise that combines a short, repeating piano phrase with the scratchy, scribbled bursts of a faulty guitar lead while improvised vocals complain amidst shrill feedback. With such a loud mastering job highlighting the practice room ambience throughout, the narrow frequency range of these excerpts of improv can be particularly harsh on the ear dampening enjoyment of the spirited free play.

But this dense volume does provide both impact and definition to some of the compilation’s more minimal works like Culver’s dark, gravely bass guitar drone that subtly builds shadowy hues to form a stream of roaring traffic, or Hapsburg Braganza’s ‘Alley Collage’ whose mysterious, layered field recordings suggest a view of urban demolition. Best of all though is from Graveyards ‘Tone Clash’, which sees the Michigan trio of Ben Hall, Hans Buetow and John Olson, play around with a literally rolling sound, like a large ball bearing in a contact mic’d wok. The result is a room full of trembling deep frequencies, an amazing physical effect that describes a haunted concavity that dovetails surprisingly well with doomy passages of reeds skronking and wailing.

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Russell Cuzner
Latest Reviews

Various Artists - George Ferguso...
This two disc compilation is named after music journalist Scott McKeating’s father who passed away in 2007 following a typically sudden and brief struggle wi...
290324   Piranha - Piranha(DVD)
280324   Typhoon Club - Typhoon Club(B...
270324   Jerzy Skolimowski Collection ...
260324   Latex Choker - Sealed
260324   Occlusion - 59: No Input Wall
260324   Nihil Impvlse - Anabasis
260324   Marta Forsberg - Sjunger För...
260324   The New Boy - The New Boy( Th...
250324   The Stargazer’s Assistant - ...
250324   Liza Lim - Annunciation Trip...
Latest Articles

The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H...
Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
280324   The Music of Clay Ruby & Buri...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom