re:mote voices: audio

Title: Bird And Truck Collision
Artist: Smooth Quality Excrement
Label: Influx Communications

With a burst of sound we are into the first track on Bird And Truck Collision, the first of 5 untitled pieces on this the first release by Smooth Quality Excrement. This is the fourth release to come to us from Influx Communications with Smooth Quality Excrement featuring on the Audio Odditions Kompilation. This swirling and easy drone piece is the work of Paul Locasta, "The" Fruitless Hand and Ure Thrall - each having appeared with various other projects on the Odditions comp and the previous Influx release joining "The" and Ure to provide Forbidden Fruit.

untitled 1 is a spacious piece, the sounds are open in a cavernous manner. Motions are slight - an insectile flutter here, the trickle of loose rocks there. The shift to untitled 2 is fairly seamless, and as this is material produced as a result of a live improv session it is not surprising. A metallic bass ripples in a sinuous fashion, an undertow beneath the slight glitching surface. Creaking sounds are flickers from there and light objects add percussive elements. Echoing it seems we have continued through the cavern finding an underground lake. Something offers a high chorus in the dark, setting off a chorus of croaking - no doubt albino frogs. Each step is like falling, with a deep drone and high whine. From there its plain sailing - smoothly sliding forward across a now still surface.

With a slight dip we shift to the third track, which is instantly more upbeat with a foreground bus that vibrates in and out. Bowing sighs cross our path, and the background is populated by a constantly shifting, understated percussion. Here the drony elements remain at the core, but there is certainly a greater level of detail allowed to filter through. A sense of fluid sounds remains as we progress, an edge of night's sleep - voices in the dark as we shift under dream's influence. The pacing shifts towards its end, more conscious and rapid in the surface twitches. The 4th piece continues from there the sighing drones layering in a pronounced manner, with a melody blossoming. There are slight bells and voices over heard, scrapes and events. After 3 minutes the sound focuses - funneled into a coherent mass. A mass which grows in density - encompassing your awareness.

The final piece is again a spatial sound, but in a more open manner. A sparkling ray shimmers with little glimmers of burning fragments. Sighing drones spread across the sound spectrum, working on at least three levels with distinct percussions and textures between each of those. As with all the pieces here there is a certain relation in sound to Asia Nova and Ure Thrall And The Fruitless Hand releases. And as such this is likely to appeal to those that appreciated those works, along with fans of atmospheric music in general. Though as effective as Bird and Truck Collision is I can't imagine it really compensates for the real time experience of being present during the actual live recording.

RVWR: PTR
April 2000