What can be done to quell the tumultuousness of the human brain's processes? Some people exercise. Some pray. Others find chemical solutions. Others pursue activities within the arts. A subset of this latter portion choose to make Noise. Surely, not all of those who choose to work within the Noise field are mentally unstable or unbalanced, and the notion occurs to Disaster Amnesiac that people that I've interacted with in that scene are generally well mannered, friendly, and just kind of considerate as regards most situations. Still, it's a given of the human condition that we're all mostly kind of without much mooring as we make our way through the subjective mortal passages that we're all committed to within this earthly realm. Therefore, we all have to find ways of coping and making sense of it all. Mid-Western sound artist Daniel Park appears to have been utilizing Noise as his creative outlet for a long time. This year's release from his Paranormal Ragtime Orchestra, An Unquiet Mind, pulls heavily from a scholarly text about bi-polar disorders and it evinces a lot of the topsy turvy features that characterize that type of mental complex. It starts off with a really pretty and blissful hammered dulcimer piece, Digital Laraaji Simulator, which has tricked this listener into thinking that the entire album would remain within that sort of sonic zone. Not so, as the next track, with the hella Punk Rock title Clint Sprott is a Jerk gets hella aggro and glitched out and exploded. Things settle down a bit for Grains, which has modular quacks and garbles and fades. Granular! Is DRM2 a device or a person? Whatever or whomever, Generative Patch for DRM2 gives cracking and burning circuits. Neatly percussive sounds arise until an ice patch of high pitches concludes. Vocals and drones and field recordings are blended into high plains drift pulses on Lost Soul, and it's very compelling listening. More percussive tones arise and then fade into the nighttime fields. Are the ring modulator sounds on Innerspatial Navigation further processed by lap top? That's a perceptual leap made by Disaster Amnesiac, for they sure sound as if they were. Effective close mic'ing showcases how cool the sounds of burning circuits can be! Floor Pile is a slow burn that picks up squidgey densities as its drones unfold. This song features a battle between contemplation and action, and you the Noise fan are the winner, should you choose to witness. The very academically named Soliloquy for Voice, Mic Feedback, Xenon Gas Tube Filter and Spring Reverb blasts pure, unbridled Noise as it starts. There is an indeed a voice that intones some kind of text as discordant harmonics and windswept cacophonous sounds resume the Glitch Core action that Paranormal Ragtime Orchestra favors on An Unquiet Mind. Lovely beating sourced from what sounds like the modular synth fill Intermittent Intermission, whose title is very accurate, as it is indeed a short piece that sets the stage for penultimate track Prodromal Shore. Fascinating Sci-Fi title, that second one! This track heads into more spacious terrain. It actually gets quite quiet before a built up Noise wall is erected. The machines that erected this wall worked very hard, hopefully there was no burn out before it was completed. The record concludes with its variation of a title track, a driven and driving synthesizer piece that gets progressively more fried as it develops. The faded conclusion of The Unquiet Mind makes Disaster Amnesiac wonder how long its duration was as it was performed. An Unquiet Mind presents a wide swath of approaches to making Noise, all of them well considered and recorded by Paranormal Ragtime Orchestra. Undoubtedly, Daniel Park found some kind of mental solace as he laid down these eleven tracks of sonic experimentation. Grab the CD and do a bit of mental exploration on yourself!
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