Taming Power - Selected Works 1995-97 flac album

ASKILD puts aside his guitar for this album and continues his study of electronica. This is not the pretty, safe world of synthetics - indeed the pitch changes on the opening track are nothing to do with any instrument I can relate to. It sounds like some kind of tone generator or filtering device. Added to the tone is a building, almost feedback noise which almost acts as a beat. This is the closest thing to Trad Industrial I have heard from him - reminds me of early SPK when it wasn't just cacophony. And although there's greater dynamism in this recording, it utilises a similar raw noise approach to JOHN EVERALL's late lamented TACTILE project. Hot and uncultivated, yet possessing of a glowing-valve-and-hot-circuitry sense which is seldom found on more precise electronic works. The second track follows in a similar vein. There's a definite attempt at creating 'tune' within the giant bee hum / anxious pig sound. But emphasis is taken away from the simple pattern, which suggests safety and normality within the shrill screams and warping BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP experimentation. Delay features heavily, but as an integral part of the cacophonous whole, rather than as uninspired garnish. Subtle this isn't, but it makes a nice change to hear something this raw which isn't just pain-inducing (and very samey) distortion and overdrive. Track three delves even further, ranging far and wide to prove that even with a (self-imposed) limited palate of audio imagery, you can create countless variations, without losing it totally. Here we return to the electric guitar, albeit with countless manipulations surrounding it. As before, this manages to juxtapose the deep, edgeless rolling tones of the lower end of the spectrum, while adding some disturbing treatments. Following on from the 'A' side, the second side shows little inclination to change direction. Instead the varying degrees of grizzle, hum and shrill are manipulated into new and stranger shapes and structures. Know those guys dressed as clowns who make dogs and giraffes out of balloons? Imagine a similar entertainer utilising still-warm-and-steaming viscera to make animal shapes, then twisting the blood-dripping inflated intestine into other shapes, again and again, until the gore no longer allows the transmutation - he's doing similar things with sound. Subtle and hidden as it often is, ASKILD uses a definite percussive motif on much of this work. High-pitched shrills, manipulated and mutated, make a simple-but-effective departure from the abnormality which is taken as 'The Norm' here. The third piece on side two smashes the atmosphere which is almost a safe 'lull' into full attack during 'The War Of The Superpowers'. It certainly clears the palate and kicks complacency into reaction. Again the core 'tune' is a simple two-note affair, yet the various processes draw you away from the weaknesses and enhance the basic idea of this being a low-risk naive tune, making it a complex grey lump of tonal landscaping instead. It's a journey of discovery - I feel as much for the artist's sake as for the listener. At times it nudges me to make familiar references to THROBBING GRISTLE, although the reference here is to TG's less cultivated live work. Tones enriched with heavy harmonics make up the final 'track', before the various whirrs, rattles and beats from an Fm radio meander around in a glorious chaos. Strange that this was the last album sent to us - it may have been the one to get the listener hooked early. Recommended to those who like their raw sonics a tad dilute, and would as soon stay away from the extremes. Originally reviewed for Metamorphic Journeyman.