sheffield/rippie
This is already the third cassette by Colin Andrew Sheffield and James Eck Rippie in less than a
year and their fourth album since they started, but that was fourteen years ago. So one could
say that is quite a comeback since then. They are reducing further here, with this time around,
no titles; just two sides of music. The line up is as before, with Sheffield on 'samples and
processing' and Rippie on 'turntables, samples and processing'; which made me think that
somehow whatever streams off the turntable is sampled and processed by both men. Tanuki
refers to this as 'their own brand of plunderphonics', but don't confuse this for anything that
sounds even remotely similar to John Oswald, Tape-beatles or that ilk; there is nothing by way
of spoken word, socio-political commentary or such like, but in the world of these Texans, there
is none of that, and perhaps also not much that sounds like instruments being sampled, but with
some good will one could recognize classical music in here, stretched out and played out. It takes
the form of drones most of the times but it is not exclusively about that. Here on the first side it
seems to be more about drones, but also on this piece we detect a serious experimental edge.
Both of these pieces are not really chill out drone affairs and the first half of the second side is
scratchy and jumpy, like a bunch of broken records being played and electronically treated, but
in the second half these two men arrive at a more spaced out sound, with voices humming over a
landscape of drones. The first side has some of these voices and treatments but then throughout
the entire side, with a few ups and downs along the way. This is another beauty in their small
collection of releases.
polarities
(tanuki #23) cassette
"Colin Andrew Sheffield is the founder of Elevator Bath and has recorded for the Invisible Birds, Mystery Sea, and Quiet World labels, while James Eck Rippie has recorded for the Cronica and Sirr labels, among others, and has collaborated with Simon Whetham, Paulo Raposo, and eRikm. They both currently live in Austin TX. They have made three albums together, starting with a first LP in 2001. It was followed by a fourteen year break before they resumed their collaboration with a pair of cassettes published on Elevator Bath. Sheffield and Rippie are both working with samples and records, creating their own brand of plunderphonics. There's always been a certain mystique to this kind of theft and plunder, despite the now commonplace idea of stealing other people's music to produce your own. In this particular case, you'd be hard-pressed to figure out the actual sources of their music and you have to believe their word when they claim to be using commercially available recordings. They focus on very small, almost microscopic fragments of music, and process them by all means available, using effects pedals, sampling effects, or modifying and damaging the records. The result is a textural reworking of the original sounds, layered and expanded into slowly unfolding atmospheric collages. Although almost untraceable, it retains for them the very essence of the original works, much like an alchemic distillation of it, transcending its previous shape to offer its substance and power in concentrate form."
- Tanuki Records
Polarities has been released as a 36-minute cassette with full color j-card and free download, limited to 100 copies.
Track list:
- Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly
Magically everything has happened to my face when it came out into my ears. But mostly It turned into a grimace of wandering wonders when the collaboration between these two individuals was settling in and doing its special things. It felt so good for me to be exposed to this kind of music; material so enriched in fantasy triggering materials and imagination stimulating stimulations that I could only smile and wonder...
what is this magical magic that is doing so much wonderful stuff into my ears and mind, how beautifully done and amazing this all sounds, a nonstop trip for all of us. A work that has been made to happen and will have to find a way to be heard by you, brave listener. It's an amazing experience, a nonstop soundscape that is superbly listenable, with enough tension, sensation and prettiness to get any real sound & music lover hooked in pure intrigued attention. Spooning up every second of the sound with great eye for detail and attention.
I can't tell what I saw on these trips, but the things that happened to my mind when this music was the center of my world was surely an amazing adventure, it for sure claimed full on attention. It was as if a beautiful drug in audio form had came to massage my senses like no one else could. Proving that music collaborators are drug dealers and the drug itself in one; making me feel instantly addicted to these weird beauties of a mysterious sound world in which they kept providing brain teasing wonders to ponder over, or fall in love with.
If you are in search for a soundscape to trip on, a audio lover that needs a nonstop story that will make sure you will not be bored or a junkie who rather listens to music to get to that higher level of consciousness than this link might be very much of your interest.
- Yeah I Know It Sucks