Blue Shift – Ghost Singers 3 [Breaking World]/Pak – Pak [Breaking World]

A couple more jams from George Myers's phenomenal Breaking World Records label.
Ghost Singers 3 is an odd little tape. I hadn’t heard Blue Shift before this but it turns it’s Providence’s Cybele Collins's solo violin mistreatment project. The first time through I wasn’t sure what to think of this tape but after having listened a number of more times I’ve gotten into it. The tape runs through 12 tracks in 25 minutes and things blur together a bit so fingers crossed I match the right names to the right piece of music. Beginning with “Whistle Run” Collins is doing, I guess, what would be standard playing with a bow and such but the result is a kind of wispy sound with as many overtones, incidental noises, and percussive strikes as there are recognizable violin sounds. “Bored Gun” sounds denser; there’s some layering/looping including what I think is reversed violin. I dig the layered effect because the violin fulfills many purposes filling out the sound, contributing a rhythmic element, general clatter and fleeting melodic touches in the track’s too $hort 30 seconds. “Having a Conversation” has weird multi-tracked manipulated vocals with stuttering violin accompaniment. I certainly wouldn’t call the track “melodic” but there are flashes of melody in the warble and scrape affair that add an odd beauty to the piece. The title-track reminds me of Carter Burwell’s score of Fargo a bit with some eastern (European) influence maybe? It’s a rather pleasant, too-brief piece. “Feather Duster” returns to some vicious sawing and scraping getting some really sharp edged squealing tones from the violin. “Belonging Pit” is similar but much less frantic and features a breakdown of sorts with 3 or 4 tracks of violin all moving in seriously different directions. It’s a really interesting listen, especially with head phones, and I have fun attempting the probably impossible task of following one of the tangled tendrils through the course of the song. “I Want an Accident” closes the first side with a legitimately groovy (jeez do I need a new adjective for that sort of thing) backwards loop and violin overlaid. Actually scratch that. Cause another track just came on, so I fucked up the track names somewhere in there. Sorry about that, but I’m not about to go back through and figure it out right now. I’m having too much fun listening. The second side starts off with my favorite track, and probably the most “normal”, “Pin Dance”. The song is pretty coherent and knowingly pretty. Despite tying up most the of loose ends she lets hang in the other tracks, Collins doesn’t sacrifice interesting texture in the least. I’d actually be curious to hear her arrange (and/or write) a traditional classical piece because she has unique skill for forming melodies in unexpected ways. “Warnings” follows with strange skronk more akin to stuff that comes out of Chris Cooper’s guitar than a violin. The track even wraps with a short eastern jig. “Long Underwear” is pretty mellow by comparison marked by a constant bubbling of lower notes with no noticeable hi-end skree. “Ravaged Plains” is another violent sawing exhibit and the finale “Sandpaper Walls” features a lone voice caught in a web of violin clacks and runs before slipping off a reversed violin line. While, admittedly, it didn’t click immediately, Ghost Singers 3 is a unique tape that has rewarded me generously upon repeated listens.
I know next to nothing about Pak other than he’s from the Netherlands apparently. This 3inch CDr is a 15plus minute track of an unrelentingly noisy assault. Not harsh but pretty damn noisy still. Amidst all the static and squeezed/stretched tones, there is a vocal sample that pops occasionally which is one of my favorite parts of track. At least I'm pretty sure it’s a vocal sample, it’s an ecstatic yelp but there’s something about it that feels a bit inhuman as well. Pak keeps the track briskly paced with oscillator whine broken by powerful blasts of hot white noise. There actually may be more vocal samples in here cause the sounds being manipulated have a bizarre vocal quality to my ears. A bit later it definitely sounds like some distorted screams sliced up by the barrage of noise, but who knows what the source actually is. Just when the squealing oscillator stuff is wearing thin Pak breaks it up with a block noise which definitely had some almost chorale sounding vocals. The bummer is that lasts for like 8 seconds and we’re back to the squealing oscillator stuff. I like this but it could certainly stand to be a few minutes shorter and probably a bit more varied. And I’m sure that squealing oscillator thing will have a penchant to drive some people out of their minds, though maybe that's the whole idea.
George Myers made some fantastic artwork for this Blue Shift tape with a melancholy, melting lizard monster on the front cover and a colorful illustration of some weird hippie prayer ritual on the inside. The Pak CD-r comes with a white card board cover with a crooked row of smiling teeth imprinted on it, a little bit creepy. I couldn't get that to scan so I scanned the back cover FYI. The Blue Shift tape is still in print not sure about the Pak cd-r since it came out quite a while ago. I’d email George if yr interested.

Ducktails – Untitled [Breaking World]/Bromp Treb – Twins [Breaking World/Yeay!/Apostasy]

I’ve been waiting for this 7inch from Matt Mondanile’s Ducktails project for a long while now. Maybe, more specifically, I’ve been waiting for “Pizza Time”, probably the single of ’08, to have a legit release. I’ve spent more hours on myspace than I care to admit just playing that track since I discovered it earlier in the year. Over all this time, my expectations had grown to astronomical levels. So, does this little record deliver on all its promise?
Answer: yes.
The first side kicks off with the breezy “Beach Point Pleasant”. Effortlessly feel-good-about-your-life music. There’s a twangy, super-surfed guitar whipping up wonderful lines against a multitude of hazy keyboard layers. There’s a looping slot machine keyboard jingle that the whole track is built upon. Oxymoronically, it’s cloudy and sunny at the same time. I’m not all that sure what to write about this. It’s just… good. Really really good. “Pizza Time” is what some might call “da bomb” and they’d be right. My girlfriend and I listen to it every time we eat pizza (every other day probably). I listened to this track hundreds of times and the piece has not lost one molecule of its charm. Truth be told, it’s one of the catchiest things ever written/played/recorded/whatever since the beginning of time. It features one the grooviest guitar parts in recent memory and the best use of an auto-wah pedal I’ve ever heard, killer drum machine beat, the works. When Mr. Mondanile reaches for the low notes in the bridge, it’s pure heaven. The second side features “The Gem” in two parts. This side represents an a little spacier area of the Ducktails sound. Heavily flanged keyboard and drum machine build and build through the length of “Part 1”. “Part 2” continues in the same vein but jacks up the tempo a bit. All the little melodies and counter-melodies come through clearer in the second part and you can really catch all the intertwining lines. The ever pumping drum machine gets erratic towards the end but still jams like there’s no tomorrow. Fantastic record.
Though I’m always happy when George W. Myers peddles ear candy like this Ducktails record and last year’s Cherry Blossoms LP, Breaking World Records made its name on zany Western Mass stuff like this Bromp Treb 7inch. Co-released with Yeay! Cassettes and Apostasy Recordings, Twins is all over the place. All the source material comes from drums apparently and there’s some sort of tape manipulation/tape collage thing happening with those sounds. Some sounds sound rough and percussive and some sound like voices and dogs barking and some sound like popping bubbles. He must be using every part of the drum here just like the Indian used every part of the buffalo. Because, shit, I don’t understand how all this stuff used to be straight drums at some point. There doesn’t seem to be any coherent “structure” here just a vomiting forth of sound if you can dig it. Flip the record over and you get “Birdie Flies”. The sounds here are (surprise!) recognizable as drums. A drum duel ensues with lots crash, whiz and bang. The drumming sounds a bit more ragged and sharp edged than other drums-only groups. There’s a looser feel that works for this guy. There’s a great part at the end where things come together very nicely in semi-rehearsed fashion; a mid tempo tom-tom stomp where both drum tracks almost double each other but keep things interesting with slight diversions and nuances. For fans of drums and weird noises.
As always the best thing about a record on Breaking World is the artwork by Mr. Myers, the finest pen in the underground. The Ducktails artwork is soft and mellow, perfect companion for the music. The labels are cool too. I like the front cover of the Bromp Treb, but it’s the back cover that’s really happening; pseudo-symmetric, psychedelic Where the Wild Things Are shit. Totally great. Cool labels too and all the album info is printed on the inside of the cover. Both are cheap and still available from their respective labels.