NO PART OF IT #1

 

NO PART OF IT #1 – Leslie Keffer, Sterile Garden, Architeuthis Dux & Arvo Zylo.

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/

https://linktr.ee/nopartofit

Imagine my surprise when I received a generous package of 4 albums off Arvo Zylo’s label NO PART OF IT a few months ago. NO PART OF IT have been releasing albums since 2008, originally based in Chicago, they are now based in Sparks Nevada. Releases span across all main formats: Lathe Cuts vinyl, regular vinyl, CDrs, Tapes and CDs. Their roster consists of people who work quietly and aren’t great at self-promotion or schmoozing. NO PART OF IT worked away from the internet for a couple of years off the grid, producing Xerox newsletters taking payment from money orders or hidden cash. There is a massive sense of loyalty from the label to its artists, with benefit compilations released to help several artists that are linked to them.

All images are courtesy of the NO PART OF IT Bandcamp. 

Leslie Keffer – Reverie – Sept 22 – pro CDR/Download.

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/reverie

https://lesliekeffer.bandcamp.com/album/perceive

https://www.instagram.com/dielectriclull/

https://www.amazon.com/Body-Temple-Leslie-Kennedy-Keffer/dp/B09VWGFK4G

        1.    Reciprocate.

        2.    Predacious.

        3.    Reverie.

        4.    Titrate.

        5.    Ingest.

        6.    Expansion.

        7.    Sap.

        8.    Ruminate.

The first thing that hits me about Reverie is the striking artwork which consists of beautifully coloured, absorbing painterly forms of faceless, dissected, semi abstracted bodies. They look like paintings but they are generated from Artificial Intelligence. I am unsure how that works, is it a graphics programme on a tablet or computer? The works reflects living with trauma and PTSD; there is a book of this amazing artwork out there to see and behold, the link is above.

Leslie Keffer has an interesting history, she has released on Ecstatic Peace and collaborated with many different artists including Rodger Stella and Robedoor. Keffer has been reviewed heavily in Wire Magazine recently. She played All Tomorrow’s parties festival in the UK and I was at, this was the year that Thurston Moore curated in 2006. The sounds are apparently made from FM radio static and Keffer’s voice is projected onto the radios through different machines she uses. In texts I have read that there is a clairvoyant aspect to how she uses radios and voices in her work.

Reverie fits right into one of my latest obsessions, which is noise artists who use approaches that subtly disrupt silence with quiet noise and slight build ups of sound. This work thrives with gradually increasing layers of ticking, clicking and drones that converse with each other. Tension is raised through use of subtle drones that arise or slight tweaks in volume to individual noises to intensify their voice within the mix of existing sounds. The negative space in the work is a void awaiting disruption. The work can be threatening, ominous and hostile in parts, it achieves this easily without shouting. Reverie is work from 20 years ago, that was never released. The visuals and audio work together perfectly, this is a beautiful, strong and very impressive album. Keffer has several releases on NO PART OF IT that I look forward to checking out.

 

Sterile Garden – Acidosis – CDR – pro CDR/Download - 2020.

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/acidosis

https://sterilegarden.bandcamp.com/

        1.    Acidosis 1.

        2.    Acidosis 2.

        3.    Acidosis 3.

        4.    Acidosis 4.

        5.    Acidosis 5.

        6.    Acidosis 6.

Acidosis is a condition in which there is too much acid in the bodily fluids.

Google search result on the meaning of Acidosis.

I immediately like the sound of Acidosis, it feels like an accelerated journey through a landscape, linking it to the title artwork which is a collaged and hand drawn body taken through various degrees of abstraction, I would guess that the work is a journey through the mind and body during Acidosis? The artwork is by Jacob Deraadt, who makes the sounds and runs the Basement Tapes label.

Throughout the album, tracks strike a good, delicate balance of what I hear as electronic noise, sampled sounds and field recordings. There is a lo-fi atmosphere that adds authenticity to the work, noises seem to throw different timescales over the work, the radio sounds give a feeling of past times as if this is the journey over time with the body or different cases of Acidosis. Industrial creaking pulls the work into another time, as if in a factory with huge old machines busily operating away. The sense of time shift is present within some Acidosis’s.

Sounds of decay and corrosion give a Death Industrial feel that seems to weave in and out of the work. Long drones can make the work bleak and barren, as if in a wasteland – the atmosphere is strong across each Acidosis. Harsh Noise causes storms across tracks, allowing the work to accelerate its pace and aggression. In contrast to this sounds can become quieter and things subtly scrape and chime at each other, the sound can be stripped down to a whisper at times. The final Acidosis is the fiercest piece of work, things go to higher levels of extremity with the feedback and noise.

Acidosis is an impressive album that doesn’t stay in one place for too long. Sterile Garden stretches back to 2006, Acidosis serves has served as a good introduction for me to begin my exploration of the project’s work.   

Architeuthis Dux – Submergence – CDR/Download – 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/architeuthisduxnoiseatx  

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/submergence

https://soundcloud.com/architeuthis-dux

        1.    Skin Walker.

        2.    Empires and Churches are all Born Under the Sun of Death.

        3.    Chains of Prometheus.

        4.    Breaking Wheel.

        5.    Ice Cave Mystic.

        6.    Polar Slave Compass 4.

        7.    Axis Mundi.

        8.    Red In Tooth & Claw.

Architeuthis Dux is a giant underwater squid that can grow up to 12-13 metres, it is also a Texas duo of Kenny Brieger and Tony Duran, who have been actively releasing and playing live since 2011.

Keyboards serve an introduction to the album’s opener Skin Walker; this goes smoothly until the melodic sound abstracts through rising drones and warbling noise. This is only a taste of the chaos that erupts on Empires and Churches are all Born Under the Sun of Death, this has a pulsating back noise as urgent vocal samples go off. Horns and distorted hissing intensify the work further. Dense drones and humming rumble alone for a time, eventually punctuated by bursts of noise – these elements battle it out until strangled string sounds try to be soothe but kill everything off. Chains of Prometheus, hisses and throws out looping, pulsating noise that descends into industrial, ambient hostility. Bells jingle, backed by feedback to intensify the track. The sound becomes slower by dragging more as if to create static tension in the sound until it grinds to a halt.

Subtle ambient sound forms the beginning of Breaking Wheel, this uses the feedback for tension as drones hum underneath, the friction between the two gives a submerged feeling to the overall sound. Repetitive flute-like melody is backed by drones and a slow thudding beat, bell like jangling helps create Ice Cave Mystic. This mixture of sounds starts to juxtapose around each other, creating a gentle state of flux. Things are brought to a slower pace as Polar Slave Compass 4 begins, I like the subtle shifts that this track demonstrates, especially as the sound stirs and becomes ominous as the rumbling drones begin to expand. Axis Mundi drops right back into subtle tremors of ambient territory, this plunges into deeper sonic depths than before. I feel that Axis Mundi pulls the album into deep waters of sound, it has a slow, rumbling beauty that radiates from its’ explorations. The finale, Red In Tooth and Claw immediately returns to an aggressive Power Electronics territory, it partially muffles parts of the sound allowing the churning drones to rule the roost with any shifts and changes that they make.

As this is my intro to Architethis Dux, my initial impression is that they create very strong, textured work. The variety in the work is strong, when styles are used more than once, they are kept interesting through how they differ with what they are mixed with. There is a lot of mastery of their technique displayed on Submergence to make a solid, good album. I am definitely now a fan.

Arvo Zylo – Upheaval – CDR/Download – 2018

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/upheaval-2

        1.    Upheaval Version 93.

        2.    Upheaval Version 94.

        3.    Upheaval Version 95.

        4.    Upheaval Version 96.

        5.    Upheaval Version 97.

        6.    Upheaval Version 98.

        7.    Upheaval Version 99.

Arvo Zylo is Blood Rhythms and NO PART OF IT. Upheaval is from 2018. This is the second set of Upheaval’s, there appear to be several in physical and digital format across Discogs. The Bandcamp description says the sounds here are sourced from different pop divas holding down sustained notes whilst singing. It is impossible to tell, the sounds don’t sound like voices at times due to how they have been processed and treated. However, at other times the mind suspects that they are voices, at times a fine line is balanced upon.

I am immediately confronted by aggressive looping and repetition backed by different noises that loop out of sync to the main noise. Different aspects used to make Upheaval Version 93 come to prominence throughout its’ duration. I’d describe this as an initially ruthless sound that becomes sparkly and beautiful across its’ duration. Melodic loops run across Upheaval Version 94, guitar like noises and symphonic sounds cause an increase in the tension of the work, making it similar to a dramatic opera reaching a screaming conclusion. Upheaval version 95, crashes, drones and hums a repetitive blast of impact. Upheaval Version 96 dives back into hostile ambient dreams, the sound wavers in slow, roaring, bass-heavy distortion. As the track progresses, the sound begins to drag and the roaring back noise takes the lead, it seems to throb and push the sound massively. Upheaval Version 96 thrives on the pressure cooker effect, roaring away at the end, my brain took all the impact from my headphones, thanks boss.

Upheaval version 97, begins, it has that ambient, infected feel that can either get sicker or be a prelude to heightened terror. However, this eventually seems to allow beauty to flow through the noises, very surprising. Quieter, murky drones build Upheaval Version 98, it seems to out murk 97. The thick sound that hums through everything, initially sounded like a bit of contact mic abuse, but I think it is a slowed down voice note slurring across the others. The longest Upheaval is the last, Upheaval version 99. Throbbing loops of distorted noise (is it voice) pulsate at me, violently. The sound/battering goes through slow, subtle shifts in output and speed. So technically, the head battering varies as I get a sonic smacking about – I hasten to add that I am not complaining. Voices seem to moan in the background.

I haven’t heard anything like this and I am a bit blown away. The whole album seems to consistently try to one-up the past track with the next track. This album is a Gem that is well worthy of your purchase and listening attention!

An outstanding package, thanks!

Army of One 2023.