Wednesday, 1 April 2009

HELEN WATSON – LONG DIVISION WITH REMAINDERS EP VERSION 1 (FRONT AND FOLLOW)


HELEN WATSON – LONG DIVISION WITH REMAINDERS EP VERSION 1 (FRONT AND FOLLOW)

Long Division With Remainders is an ambitious project from Front And Follow records that involves a number of exciting electronic musicians all jamming and reworking four pieces of music and moulding them in their own fashion.  It is similar to the Root experiment done by Thurston Moore a few years only, only more ambitious.

This is the first entrant into the series.  It comes from Helen Watson who is described as a “cultural icon to many”.  It is no secret she is the wife of the person that runs Front And Follow, which certainly will not have hurt her chances at being involved.

Her version of events arrives with minimal scales and a percolating sound that slowly/gradually builds to a shot of white noise akin to the arrival of a train.  From here it becomes a more sombre and sedate affair with a pulsing arc sounding like the spaceship from Close Encounters Of A Third Kind that crescends into a full on invasion.  The result is aural debris.

For the third track succinct strings dominate proceedings giving the pace an almost festive feel prior to somebody in the room suddenly switching on a dot matrix printer and amplified blender.  This is the sound of very noisy neighbours.

The first version comes to a close with more overdriven instrumentation that serves to make one weapon sound entirely like another.  The gloom and menace is overwhelming as what appears to be a cowbell rings with regularity seemingly indicating nastiness to come.  Duck and cover.

A perfection adoption.

Thesaurus moment: infraction.

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