C60-tape released on BTRecordings [website] as BT024 (that’s for the detail-lickers). Insert says: “C60 compilation of 1 minute tracks from 56 artists. Compiled by BTR, London, UK”. Second release I get to release from this label, after +Dog+’s “West Coast Class War” (BT010) [review]
It happens that I like compilations, and I also like short tracks – Something dating from the time that I released Difficult music for difficult people 1 and 2, with respectively 43 and 38 bands on them (if I’m not mistaken). These kind of mass-comps are a great way to get to know a whole bunch of new bands.
Featuring on this comp are: Scordatura, 200 Graves, Storm Surge, BBBlood, IDX1274, Moon, Meltzer, Nursing Home, Tin.RP, Traktorman, Murderer & Cheese, Another Enough Chairs, Fecalove, nxfxtxex, Xdugef, Process R245, Vivi C. Diem, Knife Power, Oubliette, Locust Sympathizer, J.M.Ginsberg, Krabatof Philharmonic Orchestra, xedh, Anotole Stretch, Azoikum, Cementimental, DBS, Cock ESP, Betty, Cheap Machines, Circle 6, Ironing, Domen Sniper, +Dog+, Lgamble, Sleeping Police, The Digitariat, Filthy Turd, Mutant Ape, Nightronics, Wander, Droopy Septum, Noisewerrrrk, Okamasan, Rabbit Girls, Smunt, Torturing Nurse, The Seven Arts, Cryptic Weevil, Praying For Oblivion, Radiocore Blowjob, Emerson Murray, 8-Bit Porno, Bruit Blanc, Wilt and Idiosyncrasia. Phew! 56 names of which only Cock ESP, Praying For Oblivion, Anatole Stretch, +Dog+, Filthy Turd and IDX1274 ring a bell.
Not going to review each track into detail, after six or seven minutes of listening I lost track of tracks anyhow. I even overlistened the Praying For Oblivion-contribution – which is actually an extract Andrew choose out of a jamsession between him and me, dating from a couple of years ago. If I had heard of this comp sooner I had probably sent in a contribution as well as I’ve got 15 one minute-tracks ready.
I must say that at first this comp didn’t live up to my expectations, it starts off with a couple of harshnoise-contributions, clearly truncated to fit the “1 minute-rule” and often ending in a too obvious fade-out – The micro-pause between each track prevents listening to these harshnoise-pieces as if they were one track, like on a CD or CDr-release, which would have resulted in a nice ‘n hectic cut-up effect (though some bands are obviously so similar that you wouldn’t notice the switch). There’re also a couple of drone-pieces on this tape too, which -again seen the 1 minute-rule- totally miss their effect. I’m not saying these bands are shit, just that their contributions are clearly “extracts” of longer recordings. There are exceptions on this tape though, bands that explicetely worked around the 1 minute-concept, and all taken into consideration the material is sufficiently varied to remain interesting, you’ll find harshnoise on it, but also junknoise, more electronoise oriented stuff, even some tracks flirting with an 80′s industrial sound – My favourites are those tracks working round short, abressive beats or doing something with silence, pitty nobody dared to do a voice-piece. The B-side seems to be my favourite, maybe because by then I got used to the “1 minuteandthenstopeverythingsyndrome” or maybe because of the first track on this side (by a band called “Betty” [website] – this seems to be the labels’ owner own project from what I can make of from the label’s site) which is a fieldrecording of someone leaving his or her house (?) and walking down the street, thus becoming the most original contribution on this tape – I’ll have to double-check this, but I think the most creative tracks are on the B-side. So overall: a nice release because of the amount of bands on it, but lots of the bands choose to play it the easy way by just cutting 1 minute out of a longer track, which at first hearing is a bit irritating, but one gets used to it after a while, and it helps when you give the volumeknob of your stereo a good swing to the right – Some of these extracts truely do taste for more and make it worth counting the tracks to see which band is playing. The entire concept reminds me a bit of “Commercial Album” from The Residents (now playing fyi) by which The Residents wanted to prove that they could do more with one minute than most commercial bands with four or more minutes. And after listening to this tape I must say they manage to do more with one minute as most noise bands as well. Also check out the sloppy seconds comp-project from Obscurica [website].