Music Reviews

Mr. Meridies

Mr. Meridies

Friction

I will admit I have only heard this music blasting through headphones that are sitting on my desk a couple feet away. I’ve listened to it several times, and think it’s probably worth putting the headphones on, but I like to be able to hear when the phone rings. I don’t know why, because I rarely answer it. This disc is chock-full of strange sounds and samples; just as you’d expect from a guy who worked with Negativland. For the end of track 9, which is “Cleaning Yourself,” I HAD to put the headphones on. I think it features a solo performance by a canine being “fulfilling one of his only roles,” to paraphrase Mr. Bungle. I could be wrong. There are also some really fascinating crunching sounds on one of the “songs,” which sounds like someone chewing on bones with an acoustic guitar pickup taped to their forehead. Would that work? Anyway, that’s what it sounds like. I suppose the right way to describe this album is “experimental,” although that doesn’t really describe what it sounds like, since that’s more of a philosophy than anything else. It sounds like this guy just walked through a junkyard full of strange toys, alarm clocks, computers, electronic things, et cetera, and sampled away. Very cool.

Friction Media, P.O. Box 576, Chapel Hill, NC 27514; http://www.mindspring.com/~tubafrenzy/fm.html


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