Dave Gilden – Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend. – Mother SavageNoise – Cassette – 1996
https://davidgildennoisearchive.weebly.com/about.html
Side A – Fucked.
Side B – Devil Worship.
Texas noise artist David Gilden released 16 recordings
before his death aged 35 in 2008, he seems to have stopped recording noise 10
years before his death. This album - Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend recently came to
my attention through a SI zine review, it’s now 23 years old. I found this
recording on discogs and wanted to review it as I have that odd feeling that
comes with discovery of some things you haven’t heard before. With no clear
markings on the tape, it’s easy to be lost inside it.
To say Fucked blasts is an understatement, I’ve heard plenty
where the overload becomes pointless, this is controlled perfectly. I feel
Gilden was able to seriously lose control of himself on recordings. The only
project I’ve heard with this level of intensity is Scatmother which beyond raw to
say the least. This really bares some vocal insanity – there’s screaming,
shouting and grunting. At times it is as if the sound is barking and spewing
itself out. On a few occasions the recording does pull back as if exhausted,
but this is deceptive as it rises again and again to bigger levels of insanity.
At points the line between what is vocal and what is not is crossed frequently.
In parts there appears to be small melodies layered behind the chaos, which is unnerving.
Muffled distortion gives way to high pitched blasts of
noise, this is Devil Worship. This shows sharp, shattered blasts of sonic abuse.
Vocals speeches come in, the voice sounds drugged, is it Gilden? More noise comes
in like a vortex that rises until it gets murky, so we’ll never know. The
choice of sonic language changes frequently, samples of heavy metal music disrupt
and taunt as things build, then it dies off into murk again. This is a depraved
and urgent recording, even when things die off, they are interesting.
As I researched, I found out the work was edited, I have
visions of this being the result of long sessions of noise and the album was
assembled from this. Did Gilden do this intoxicated, was he possessed enough to
record for hours or days on end until it reached the levels of accelerated
intensity he required, who knows? There’s no online profile to soften him, give
him a persona, it’s a mystery. This makes you question his intentions and
wonder who Gilden was. Was this simply noise with a serious punk attitude or
was this an exorcism of sorts? The whole Devil Worship concept and some of the
hidden melodies and samples makes me ask is this esoteric, not in a black
noise/ occult noise way, it just seems forward thinking. Lack of knowledge
about him makes for an epic, intriguing C60.
Choppy Noodles 2019.