I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HANGEDUP-HangedUp [CST016] (2001).

Hangedup is a noisy band made up of two people: Genevieve Heistek on viola (often looped) and Eric Craven on drums and percussion.  The whole enterprise has a kind of DIY sound—like (very good) first takes done in fit of creative outpouring.

 “Winternational” opens the disc with slow and somber viola.  But after 1:41 the drums come in and the tempo changes into complex song–the way that simple patterns morphs around is really cool. It turns into a great instrumental song, with a low, almost detuned bass sound and lots of percussion. “Propane Tank” has more great weird percussion (sounding like he’s possibly hitting everything in the room). The sounds are manipulated and twisted but make a very interesting beat.  It’s pretty cool “Powered By Steam” builds then slows with some great strings and percussive sounds following in and out of a strong melody.  “New Blue Monday” is more of the same but with a new an interesting beat arrangement and texture. It also has a great ‘riff” and melody .

“Tapping” is mostly drums (tapping). The beginning is a little monotonous although the effects in the background are interesting to try to imagine what they are.  It builds slowly so by around 5 minutes the song has some momentum.  I imagine its interesting to see live and it works for a slow building monster song but its dull compared to the rest of the disc.  “Czech Disco Pt.II” makes up for it with frenetic drums and viola. “Wilt” plays with interesting bell-like percussion.  “Bring Yr Scuba Gear” has building viola; however, this song has bass guitars (guest bassist Ian Ilavsky who is also on “Powered by Steam”) and overdubs by Efrim Menuck which make this the most traditional sounding rock song of the bunch. Which is no bad thing.

Hangedup are certainly experimental but they are very cool and different sounding, too.

[READ: May 5, 2014] “Interview 8 (Mother)”

This is an excerpt from Ball’s novel Silence Once Begun.  As such, it’s a little hard to talk about it fairly.

It begins with an interviewer’s note that he was awoken by Mrs Oda who felt she needed to clear something up.   The rest of the except takes the form of an interview.

Mrs Oda tells a story about Jiro, (presumably her son) about why he cannot be trusted.  Her story concerns Jiro when he was young.  He would pretend that he was a lord and he would preside in judgment over his toys.  All the toys (even things like blocks or spoons) would plead to him for something.  First they would all shout at once and he would declare that they would all be executed if they could not speak in turn.

Then each toy would make its case (perhaps it didn’t like where it was placed last night).  Regardless of what the toy asked for, his response was the same to each one: “Don’t open your mouth again or I’ll have you killed.”

Mrs Oda was concerned that Jiro felt that everyone should receive the same treatment–that everyone ends up the same way.  And she felt this was a very bad sign (about what I have no idea since this is an excerpt).

As the excerpt comes to a close, Mrs Oda shows the interviewer a soup spoon which the interviewer assumes is a keepsake–a favorite item of Jiros.  But Mrs Oda says she actually rescued from him.

I honestly can’t imagine how any of this fits into the overall novel.  I’m mildly intrigued, but I imagine that I won’t try to track down this book.