A jaw harp is a memento mori of instruments, a metal doodad in a head cavity, reminding the thing-ness of your skull of the fact it’ll someday hollow. And a jaw harp’s equally hilarious, a funny little spring making funny little sounds. Instant slapstick. A metal hinge with a Chaplin or a chaplain down the split, and chik white (jaw harpist and writer a.k.a. Darcy Spidle) senses both avenues, combining the jaw harp’s capabilities into something frightening, funny, wild, and weird.
stranger calls to land - cassette selections 2010-2017, the Feeding Tube Records survey of chik white’s recent activities, displays the jaw harpist’s mastery and mystery. Some tracks are crowded forcefields of vibration and incantation, while other recordings — “seep,” for example — submerge the jaw harp’s pulse within field recordings of water and wave. This collection runs the board, going from scenarios of blast furnace density to moments of scattered fishhook raindrop plink-patter.
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