louden
thomas dimuzio
odd size records
1997 CD
play | buy
reviews
“... an intelligent vocabulary of power, impulse, velocity and rhythm.” — The Wire
“Tie yourself into your chair and travel within Dimuzio's strange and chilling netherworld...” — Metamorphic Journeyman
“Dark and forboding, with a great "presense" LOUDEN makes for fascinating listening.” — Audion
The Wire
Louden remasters original cassette releases from 1987 and 88 (Delineation of Perspective and Flux) exploring noise processes not just as sublime tumult (although "Of Vast and Barren, Rotting Wastelands" has an undeniable magnitude) but through a more abstract analysis of process and technique. "Self-Proclaimed Contention (Without Variation)", using bass, microphone, processors and mixer, is a series of dynamic build-ups segued over each other: an endless take-off that conveys the velvet thunder of intergalactic spacecraft rather than Industrial screaming metal. Dimuzio's equipment includes samplers, analogue synths, E-bow, and tape recorder - the mixture of technical systems generating an intelligent vocabulary of power, impulse, velocity and rhythm. A nice foray into the experiential complexities of modernism. —Matt ffyche
Metamorphic Journeyman
Dimuzio uses the latest digital technology to create his up-to-the-minute concrete collages. In the past he's worked with people like Chris Cutler, Tom Cora, John Wiggins & Due Process. His sound is a curious combination of Industrial noise and almost film soundtrack-like composition. Immediate comparisons to the likes of Lull spring to mind, but where Mick Harris'' project is dark & minimal, this seethes with layer-upon-layer of metal, railway yard ambience, snatched voice, bowed guitar, delay feedback, synthetic strings and an unlimited supply of found sounds which go together curiously well. There are few fixed points of composition - it's more a languid journey through the familiar made alien. Dimuzio seems to dehumanise those things we take for granted, then compile them in a reorganised, re-humanised way. It's grey, muddy, indistinct territory - as layered, coloured & textured as striated rock formations through which we can find, through accident maybe or calculated design, glimpses of intriguing fossils or maybe even the glint of some gemstone. A lot of this reminds me not only of Jerry Goldsmith's music for the original 'Alien' soundtrack (which was later rehashed by Jack Horner for sundry other films, but never as well), but of the music Antonym created back in the early 80s (albeit a more stripped-down, minimal version). Tie yourself into your chair and travel within Dimuzio's strange and chilling netherworld - it's worth the journey, although I can't guarantee you'll retain your sanity. —Antony Burnham
Audion
Thomas is not so much a unique dabbler in sound construction, though he is one of the most interesting working in this field at the moment, in the wake of Jim O'Rouke, Zoviet France, Hafler Trio, et al. LOUDEN is actually an anthology of older recordings from 1987 and 1989 (including four tracks from an old Generations Unlimited release) and it largely involves great sliding (forwards, backwards, sideways?) masses of sound, loops, wedges of instrumental textures, screeching metal, machines and all sorts of indescribable unfathomable sonic sources. Dark and forboding, with a great "presense" LOUDEN makes for fascinating listening. —Alan Freeman