ponder this

various artists

submergence

2003 CD

play | buy

reviews

“Let's hope that we aren't the only shop smart enough to stock this well done plethora of sonic delights”— DMG

Downtown Music Gallery

Excellent collection of weird electronic music from both well known and lesser known figures like Conrad Schnitzler, Merzbow, Asmus Teichtens, David Lee Myers/Thomas Dimuzio, F/i, Rapoon, Colin Potter, Endgame and Mystery Hearsay. Complied by our good pal Hadley Kahn from Escapade as an obvious labor of love. The legendary German sonic pioneer Conrad Schnitzler opens with a marching sequencer beat, a number of percussion samples and subtle layers of electronic squiggles. Mystery Hearsay is/are from Memphis and sound like German synth music from the seventies with a repeating central figure and layers of suspenseful slowly shifting samples. Rapoon is much more calm and hovers in the distance. Colin Potter (has to be and is British) works with eerie samples and slowly shifting textures. Asmus Tietchens is another established sonic wiz from Germany and here does a fascinating job of altering slow moving mutant samples. Perennial favorite noise-master and over-recorded icon Merzbow provides shimmering electronic feedback drones that just slightly warped. David Lee Myers (formerly a/k/a Arcane Device) and Thomas Dimuzio (duo w/ Chris Cutler) blend their more restrained sonic fragments nicely, like submerging in a submarine. F/I from Milwaukee has also been around for a long while and does a great job of providing some scary mutating waves. Endgame aptly gets the final and longest cut, slowly unfolding one layer at a time, stretching out sounds and ghostly voices like an ominous fog enveloping us all. Let's hope that we aren't the only shop smart enough to stock this well done plethora of sonic delights. Yo Jimmy J. from FE, you best wake up & smell the coffee!? —Bruce Gallanter