Designed to work as a quarterly audiozine dedicated to “IDM, noise, experimental electronica, sound collage, manic rants and weirdness of all frequencies’ released via free mp3 download, “Lo-Fi Confessional’ is the brainchild of Norm Scott, boss of the Long Island, NY-based Grand Deceiver label. This eighth downloadable instalment is subtitled “Guards To Find The Forgotten’ and reflects the scattershot diversity of previous volumes, with the offerings here veering wildly from power-noise to field recordings and sampled cut-ups. Pittsburgh duo Luxe Robotica open proceedings with a surreal voice synthesis cut-up that acts as a meet-and-greet intro (“Both of know somebody. Everybody knows somebody” before launching into thirteen minutes of live circuit-bending and tweeter-punishing power noise bursts. Placing Mystified in the “Noise Will Be Noise’ section proves slightly puzzling, as their 3 tracks included here seem to veer closer to dark dubby ambience, while the “Phonograffiti’ section proves to be one of the biggest delights here, offering a dizzying walk around the blaring musical storefronts of a Kyoto shopping arcade. While the two cut-ups presented here prove to be a bit directionless and distinctly unfunny, they’re far outweighed in the hilarity stakes by the latest chapter of Redneck Talk presented by “Pour The Coal’ and the deliberately pained epic “tribute’ to Andy Warhol that closes proceedings. If all this sounds like your bag, why not download it at www.granddeceiver.com
Chris Downton
