Music Reviews
The Phonographers Union

The Phonographers Union

Live on Sonarchy Radio

Accretions

There’s not a note of “music” to be found on Live on Sonarchy Radio. Instead, The Phonographers Union have created an album out of extended sound collages. Culling and combining sounds like panting dogs, dripping faucets and matches catching flame, the group creates the ultimate background noise album. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this project is how each of the phonographers manipulate their chosen incongruent sounds to flow together seamlessly atop the album’s unifying bed of tape hiss.

There’s something appealing about this album that goes beyond satisfying the folly artist in me. I won’t be caught playing this on my car stereo, but there’s a feeling of comfort in this random combination of everyday noises and unidentifiable hum of silence. It might not be music in the traditional sense, but fans of the more avant-garde, “found sound” moments of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Set Fire to Flames should consider checking this out.

Accretions: http://www.accretions.com


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