Vertonen

In "Einige Schadstoffe", we have quite the potent homage to the classic era of industrial noise. Think Throbbing Gristle’s Second Annual Report, Come’s I’m Jack, MB’s Symphony For A Genocide, and even Nord’s Ego Trip. The sentimentlinking all of these records is a clinical detachment in the production and broadcast of scalding tone, sickly rhythm,and unclean readymades, emerging through the spectacle of the human conditions of alienation, paranoia, and cruelty. Ultimately, such works are intended as critiques by way of gonzo journalism, where the intent is not always what itseems.

Vertonen, the longstanding project of veteran Chicago avant-noise technician Blake Edwards, masterfully recapitulatesthese strategies and affects, both aesthetically and materially. On Einige Schadstoffe, Edwards transmits feverisharppegiations cascading through nervous distortion, followed by plodding rhythms and dead-toned electronics that girdcase studies on living monstrosities. There is also a rather clever, if oblique and almost Oulipian framework to the album. Plenty of breadcrumbs have been laid as to the nature of Edwards’ puzzle, and we have already said too much about that