First we have a package with a CD, a cassette and a 7" by Phoned Nil Trio, which is Peter J. Woods (industrial percussion, vocals and pedals), Neil Gravander (tapes, vocals and turntables) and Dan Schierl (modular synth). They already released a handful of cassettes, CDRs and online releases and toured a bit, but is their first major release - a coproduction between six different labels. From their instruments you could all too easily think Phoned Nil Trio is a noise trio, but that is not entirely the case. They are foremost a trio of improvised music, which happens to involve a fair amount of noise every now and then, but not exclusively. It rather happens with outbursts. In the first (long) track on the CD not a lot, and in the last rather a lot. Things crack and burst, rumble and hurt here, and according to the press information this is the 'sparse and minimal side' of Phoned Nil Trio. Its not always sparse, but minimal, I can see that. The various instruments are indeed played minimally, occasionally. The cassette part of the package focusses on more coherent music, continuous, and less interrupted by outbursts. More collage of sounds, with major roles for tape manipulation and turntables. Quite densely layered stuff here, which I thought it all its randomness worked rather well. The 7" seems to be focussing on the more harsher side of their work, through a strong cut-up of their material through louder blocks of sound. Here the synth has a major role with deep end rumbling. Its my least favorite part of the whole package, but I guess it makes sense to get the complete picture of what they do. On the downside, the design part of this however lacks some imagination. It looks too much like a noise type release and doesn't justify the release very much.
http://www.vitalweekly.net/834.html
Fuck that! The packaging of this release is beautiful. The art is perfect. Probably because I didn't do it. But thank you, Vital Weekly, anyway, for following your heart with your feedback. <3
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