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RUSSELL
HASWELL
Live Salvage 1997-2000
MEGO012
Mego 2003
08 Tracks. 62mins39secs |
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06:52:51,
1999, Metro.
Too late for virus checkers, firewalls, etc: playing
Haswell’s cd has activated an executable and your
system is under attack. You have two options: panic
and attempt to resist or adapt and survive. The former
may have the same effect as struggling in quicksand,
better to adopt the latter strategy. The virus has made
the categoric leap from software into wetware in the
form of a large, abrasive worm and it’s burrowing
down your auditory canal. All resistance is drilled
smooth, the tympanic membrane (better known as your
eardrum) pushed aside and direct contact made with the
auditory nerve. Cathartic may or may not be the word
for this experience.
16:03:54, 1998, Klangturm, St Pölten.
Initially it appears contact is being actively established
with inorganic matter: plastics, metals for the purposes
of research. There’s an abrupt change to a low
level roaring – is this the sound of blood bubbling
through veins and then beginning to boil? Given its
predecessor it’s difficult not to be on edge in
case of sudden attack.
07:53:60, 1998, 121, London.
Cuts to crowd sounds: inane chatter, the psssst of cans
being opened, burps, etc. Talk continues apparently
oblivious of Haswell’s sonic interjections. Whether
this is sardonic, and humorous, reflection upon the
imperviousness of audiences or a pointed equating of
machine and biological noise is left to the listener
to decide. Whatever the decision, the shift of perspective
from artist to audience is fascinating and is echoed
in the closing seconds of the cd as sparse applause
and the sound of a glass bottle hitting the floor greets
the end of a lengthy onslaught of noise.
Live Salvage is soundscaping moulded by alien aesthetics.
Form is discernable, but it seems absurd, almost bourgeois
to consciously delineate structure in the face of such
noisome extremes. The impulse may be related to Brian
Eno’s observation that any haphazard sequence
– say a video recording of people passing in the
street – acquires significance through the mind’s
desire to discern meaningful pattern. Better to sublimate
oneself in Haswell’s sound... and what a sound:
simultaneously excoriating and exultant, sculpted and
propulsive. Live Salvage is very beautiful
sound/noise/music.
Place Live Salvage carefully on your CD shelf,
perhaps with a firebreak between it and the other jewel
cases to avoid data corruption.
Colin Buttimer
4.5/5 |
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TRACKLIST |
06:52:51, 1999,
Metro, Kyoto
16:03:54, 1998, Klangturm, St Pölten
06:48:30, 1999, Posthof, Linz
07:53:60, 1998, 121, London
02:00:30, 1998, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
03:08:62, 2000, National Centre For Early Music, York
07:47:63, 1997, Wuk, Wien
11:18:24, 2000, Lok, München |
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THE
SURFER'S GUIDE TO RUSSELL HASWELL
Mego
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