In electronic music minimalist restraint and orderliness reigns supreme, even noise artists tend to favour clean, streamlined routes, so maximalist music of the kind MC Maguire makes is both rare and unfashionable. This is understandable, there is little that is attractive in his crass mix of sounds and sources. You could argue that such a haphazardly bundled hodge-podge resembles the melting pot of the 21st century world city, but one comes away from ‘Trash of Civilizations’ with the same unpleasantly empty feeling as after TV channel-surfing. I guess then that it does resemble the 21st century world city.
The two long pieces of ‘Trash of Civilisations’ offer contemporary takes on the concept of the double concerto: ‘The Spawn of Abe’ for Bflat clarinet and oboe (played by Max Christie and Mark Rogers respectively), ‘Narcissus auf Bali’ for vibraphone and marimba (Trevor Tureski and Ryan Scott), with Maguire doing the orchestra on ‘CPU’. It’s fitting that he lists COU, as it’s Central Processing Unit, and not customary ‘laptop’, that Maguire plays: it’s stuffed to bursting with samples and effects, piled on until it resembles a smeared, fizzing digital wash. Maguire sets up interesting dialogues for these trios to operate: ‘The Spawn of Abe’ sets to work on East-West cliches, and the woodwinds do a wondrous battle, but 28 minutes is a lot to ask, Maguire’s seemingly endless arsenal of tools exhausting itself long before the real instruments can. ‘Narcissus auf Bali’ is initially more approachable, Tureski and Scott’s percussion recalling post-Reichians Tortoise in good moments, but Maguire’s tireless barrage of cosmic tones is very tiring. I imagine live these duels might prove engaging, but these recordings are excessive and very difficult to enjoy.
Joshua Meggitt
*
