Randy Yau is the graphics designer responsible for the distinctive design that makes shopping for Ground Fault cds so easy and that makes owning them a visual treat as well as a sonic one. As R.H.Y. Yau, Randy is also a fiercely talented musician whose The Hidden Tongue is a sonic treat for sure. Sharp, […]

Although I can say that this is an entertaining album, I also have to confess that I don’t think I will listen to it all that often. While it won’t remind anyone of metal, I don’t think, it may be a kind of transition album for metal heads on a quest for pure noise. I […]

Noise albums sometimes have a small dynamic range, presenting a loud wash of complex sounds, an opaque surface which first resists then rewards efforts to penetrate it. Psychoacoustics has a wide dynamic range, and each of its sounds are clearly distinguishable one from the other. That, and the sheer warmth and even softness of much […]

When I first got this album, I couldn’t get past the opening few seconds. Those days seem far away and inconceivable now, as much as when Berio’s Visages was unlistenable, or even farther back, when Carter’s double concerto was a jumble of random noises. Now this album is one exhilarating pleasure after another. Less […]

Afflux is Eric Cordier, Eric La Casa, and Jean-Luc Guionnet—all of them with other cds on Ground Fault, all of them very talented composer/performers. There are three tracks on this disc, and three men, but the pieces, so far as I can hear, do not reflect each individual. What happens here is one more instance […]

I bought the t-shirt first, and then decided I should probably get the cd, too, if I’m going to go around wearing their shirt. I don’t recommend that as a logical way to find good music, but it certainly worked this time. The opening to Cosmic Trigger is a favorite of mine, […]

“Swinging ” – A noisy, minimal, slow-moving wash of gritty sound…, with tunes. It’s true; every once and awhile some of the electronic sounds are pitches, lined up just like pitches in a melody. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s fun when an actual little tune appears out of the mix. […]

IIIII starts off with a silent track of four seconds, continues with a seven and a half minute track of an unprocessed thunder shower, and goes into another track of four silent seconds. This review is not going to be a track by track account of IIIII. There are 99 tracks, […]

Mostly steady state stuff, either loops or long drones (are there short drones?) or static. But also lot of different and unrelated styles, all jumbled together, as one would expect from turntable music, after all. But it won’t remind you, or only rarely, of the other turntable stuff you may know, Marclay or […]

1. attempt #4
2. collapse
3. attempt #2
4. music for french writings
5. attempt #1
6. psychotest, last attempt
7. attempt #3
8. the litigation
9. pulse and impulse
The sudden change from soft sounds to loud noise is shocking, as is the sudden change from loud noise to soft sounds. You get some of each (some, not a lot) […]