Clinton Green & Andrew McIntosh – Kasoundi (Shame File Music)

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Melbourne artist Clinton Green (Undecisive God) is known for his experiments with prepared turntables and broken records whilst Andrew McIntosh (Screwtape) for scary blasts of noise. Together it sounds like they’re having tantrums in the kitchen drawer, or have attached a contact mic to a mouse fossicking in the cupboard. Put it this way: If you love order, then you’re in the wrong place.

This is predominantly an improvised acoustic duo, using a record player, a tape deck, rocks, bowls, kitchen utensils, aluminium foil, broken records and whatever else is at hand. What we’ve got is an abundance of implements being manhandled, vibrating, shuddering, being screwed on and off, banged together, scraped and bashed. At times it sounds like the microphone is being dragged through the kitchen, catching on the dish rack, scratching around in the pot cupboard, yet at others it coalesces into some kind twitchy shambolic creature and all the strangeness makes sense.

It’s not strictly acoustic, as the synth is also used sparingly, alternatively providing a bottom end electronic hum (though this could be the record player), or these higher pitch oscillations that are almost indistinguishable from their acoustic manipulations. There’ also some delay that creeps in from time to time, however this is used quite subtly.

They’re at their best on this 5 track album when they seem to spasm repetitively, where one of them finds a sound they like and returns a few times, allowing the other to dance around it, and as a result it creates these agonising moments of order in this highly textural chaos.

This could be noise music if it wasn’ so intimate, and whilst there are moments when both the volume and tension rises they’re not really about bluster. Their interest seems to lie in density, texture and peaks and troughs. It’s very much non-musical sound art and as a result it may benefit from the visual representation of what they’re actually doing. However there’ such a diversity of sounds and approaches that it’s always engaging. And what’s wrong with using your imagination?

Bob Baker Fish

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Bob is the features editor of Cyclic Defrost. He is also evil. You should not trust the opinions of evil people.

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