Various Artists
An Ear to An Atmosphere
(Rack and Ruin)
Bordering on the maudlin Depeche-Mode clone mode at times, this disc, for the most part, is wonderfully chaotic, discordant and disturbing. Out of the
fourteen contributions to this project, I'd have to say that my favorites
here include Flesh Pulse Flesh's ``Freedom"-a piece expanding on what PIL set out to do in the beginning: a minimalist trance band with a strong,
repetitive rhythm section; Dead Letter Office's "Stitch"-full of creepy minorchords and shifting time signatures that makes no attempt whatsoever to make
the listener comfortable; and Rhinovirus's spoken word piece "Lou's Diner," which takes everything that was good about the early Residents and slams it mercilessly upside your head. An Ear to An Atmosphere is a rich cacophony of musical textures and controlled feedback-the deeper you get into this thing, the harder it is to
climb out of the frightfunk by yourself.
Holly Day