Bastard Noise's The Analysis of Self-Destruction

by Alan Cummings
The Wire

Born from the dried up dust of "legendary" California sludgemeisters Man Is The Bastard, the Bastard Noise ensemble have long been active collaborators with the international power electronics underground. For this release though, Merzbow assault is set aside in favour of a more reflective, even minimal approach. The group is stripped down to core member Wood, playing alone or in duo mode. Supposedly a meditation on our dying world, his thriftstore electronics, cobbled together instruments and lo-fi Ambient noise summon up potent images of fossilised birds and cicadas chirupping in a petrified forest. The results are surprisingly mature and listenable.

• MP3: Bastard Noise - Death Wish for the Dying

Based in Montreal, David Kristian has looked far back into electronic music's past to unite his vision of soundtrack music and experimental electronics. Inspired by the first completely electronic film score, 1956's Forbidden Planet by Louis and Bebe Barron, Kristian recorded a 1997 album (Cricklewood) as a tribute to the radical sound experiments that the Barrons used to record it. Kristian's recording career began in the early '80s while working at a cable-television station in New Brunswick. Deciding to produce his own scores to science-fiction/animation shorts aired on the station, he composed soundtracks consisting of tape loops and analogue experiments tied to the heyday of science fiction in the 1950s. More

- MP3: David Kristian - Quint
- MP3: David Kristian - Murma Ping
- MP3: David Kristian - Spangled Hint of Tarpit

• MP3: David Kristian - Mouthfully
  - MP3: David Kristian - Dog Dreams of Running
  - A review of the "room toom" CD from The Wire.
  - A review of Woodworking from The Wire.