Several years removed from the last Up Half-Known Roads edition, and Disaster Amnesiac has figured it'd be a fine time for a new installment. That makes for four in almost fifteen years! Model efficiency for sure. I had hoped to do more of these, and Lord knows that there are plenty of "these" types of recordings floating around in my home environment. Blame inertia I guess. All that said, the focus upon trance states within each of these recordings has been their most distinguishing characteristic for this listener. Each of these documents of drumming techniques eschews the dominant tendency of drummers to get flashy and display the mad chops that they've worked on; instead, these performers hone in to much more primal places, essentially using their instruments as vehicles for trance inducement. This type of production perspective begs close attention and rewards it. At least, that's been Disaster Amnesiac's take as I've listened to them over the years. Each of the three sound artists presented here go solo with their rigs, and all of them have gotten this listener pretty baked.
z'ev-Production And Decay Of Spacial Relations; Die Stadt Records, 2006
Naturally, this post on Trance Music from solo artists must start with the man that went incredibly deep within that pursuit, the late lamented z'ev. It seems doubtful that anyone that peeps this blog would be unfamiliar with him, but if one does not know z'ev, one should seek out very deep interview/overview on him in RE/Search magazine #6/7. The guy had an astutely worked out musical system, one which he developed over several years of dedicated effort and achievement. The main recordings documented within Production And Decay Of Spacial Relations are from a 1981 New York City performance. Quite good sources for exploration of the trance state from z'ev, to be sure. The materials utilized by him during that time, reclaimed metals and plastics, were pounded, swung around, twirled, thrown and just generally played with over duration that allowed for these rich overtones to emerge within the resonant space. In keeping with z'ev's study of linguistic systems, Disaster Amnesiac often hears sigils and even alphabetical elements within the sound clouds conjured by z'ev. Incidental sounds can be heard within the cascading sheets of overt ones, and to take note of them is to have the trance state made available. The liner note mentions "recoding", and while this is intriguing to me and surely of great importance to z'ev, I can't figure out what it implies for this record. A second disc features live work from New York City performances in 1982 from not only z'ev but also alternate Stephan Weisser personas uns and element/L. Poetic methods are key within this one for the most part, but whenever z'ev was manning a sound producing object, Trance moves were bound to be included, and indeed are. Wade into these somewhat murky (on account of limited budgets for engineering and performing most likely) sounds and be transfixed into a reflective trance state.
Will Guthrie-Sacree Obsession; Ideal Recordings, 2015
Disaster Amnesiac imagines that Will Guthrie is a member of the post John Zorn generation of Free Improvisation practitioners. The cover image, very KVLT, suggests an eagerness to explore those types of Postmodern and Further blending. Clearly gotta find more documents of his work, as they probably range all over the aesthetic map. On Sacree Obsession Guthrie utilizes drums, percussion, gongs and orchestral bass drum as means to produce long form sound worlds. These worlds are often characterized by longer tones. It sounds as if one intended timbrel effect is that of drone. The action starts with invocations from bells, then gongs are introduced. Mallet push textures out of the resonant metals. Surfaces wobble beneath the metals. Guthrie shows the musical astuteness to self-pace in the solo mode, and this often adissimo begets the trance that is accessible through the drone. And that's just side one! There are spots within side two's track that suggest overdubs, but Disaster Amnesiac sees no harm in that when they add to the lovely percussion phrases played. More well placed gong hits and stick control for drum nerds to note. Slashing energetics fly off of the turntable. Microtones again present and noted. Will's very skilled musicianship let the overtones emerge. This is a very rare in beautiful thing in an age of bashing the drums as best evidence of talent. I've imagined that Guthrie must have found some of those Trance sweet spots as he performed Timelapse and Pacemaker in France ten years or so ago.
Black Mecha-Black Mechanical DJ Set At The White Hotel; Death Of Rave Records, 2019
Here we encounter the kind of deliciously anomalous obscurity the Disaster Amnesiac is always in some kind of obsessive state over. The sounds captured on Black Mechanical DJ Set At the White Hotel do suggest that Black Mecha was involved in producing a live DJ set. Random human voices float up to the surface from the overall matrix produced from....what? Turntables? If that's the case, this is some of the most original Turntablism that's been released. Although there is the occasional break within the action, for the most part the sound on this cassette is a repetitive rumble that conjures up not so much any kind of discoteque but more like a laundromat with most if not all of its machines at full cycle. Yes, this is a paraphrase from Lydia Lunch. Lydia Lunch can certainly use words, many thanks for lighting the way. Possible keyboard breaks sometimes can be heard but, again for the most part this release's sounds just rumble along with a rhythm that borders upon obsessive (just like Will Guthrie, nyuck nyuck). I want to include it within this post for the reason that it's always pondered by when I hear it: "how would people have danced to this?" The answer that's been formulated within my noggin is that, if a person worked towards trance-out while being exposed to this music, they would have ample encouragement from it to have that occur. This thing's raw like that, and I always also wonder: "was Black Mecha invited back to The White Hotel for a return engagement?" Really nice, Futurist cover art, too, and sound that shows no sign of post-production on that end. Sliiiiiiiiiick.
How was your Thanksgiving holiday this year, America? Did you have to go into any kind of trance in order to fend off unwanted "discourse" from politically adversarial guests or hosts? Obviously these recommendations arrive too late for this year, but they could help during functions at later dates than this. Surely people will be getting uptight about whatever the Current Thing is at those gatherings. Or you could just find them and check them out for the sheer pleasure of listening. They're out there, just as the trance is out there for any that need its refuge.