Tables and tables of gear laid out before them, two men hunch over to the point that their torsos are pretty much perpendicular to the knobs and knobs and knobs. Cords protrude firmly from sockets and then flop together into a tangle impossible to coil without serious unplugging patch sabotage. Squint at the markings on these chassis — Roland, MFB, Ciat-Lonbarde, Blippoo — and imagine the uninitiated throwing up hands and shoulders, like hieroglyphics to me man; what is this??? The idea of a gear technician in control of the machines, coaxing out exactly the tones he hears in his brain, complicates when some of that gear operates on principles of randomness, chaos theory, non-linear feedback, sudden and alien abstraction. Within rigid structures, unexpected elements lead a session into new zones that, even with the knobs and the hands and the cords and the sockets in the “right” configuration, will never be heard again.
Head Boggle, a.k.a. Headboggle, neé Derek, multi-multi-multi-instrumentalist behind infinite tape releases and 2012’s Headboggle LP on Spectrum Spools, pours out synth leads and textural beds. Vibrating Garbage, a.k.a. Black Thread, neé Greg, the prolific purveyor of minimal industrial synth-noise electronics and co-proprietor of Donkey Disk, shapes the rhythms and low-end. After some ace mixing and editing from Greg, the duo’s unpredictable, transfixing collab sessions to prep for a live show manifest as 23 minutes of magnetic tape via TMT über-favorite Beer On The Rug (the shadowy cartel behind a few recent classics). No physical release date yet, but you can stream one side below and buy the digital on Bandcamp.
• Headboggle: http://headboggle.tumblr.com
• Vibrating Garbage: http://donkeydisk.com
• Beer on the Rug: http://www.beerontherug.com
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