Oh man, Stunned is back with another crazy run. This time around it's 8 release--4 CD-Rs and 4 CS--all handsomely packaged in celebration of their first anniversary. Can't believe the damage Phil and his operation have already done in only a year of work... 30 or so releases and nary a stinker in the bunch...
Figured this one was as good a place to start as any, as Housecraft's Jeffry Astin and his Xiphiidae project are a personal favorite... already been reviewed a bunch here, I know, but nothing the guy puts out diminishes in quality, so as long as he keeps pumping them I'll keep covering them. And any meet up between Astin and Stunned demands attention... anyway, let's proceed shall we?
On this outing, Xiphiidae lays down duel 12 minute tracks that explore his distinct brand of scrape drone to marvelous effect. This time out, things are a bit hairier than usual though. The first track starts out with a denser conglomeration of sound than nearly anything I've heard from Astin yet, with thick drenches of static and construction yard rumble opening the first track. Echoing through quarry sized acoustic spaces, the network soon makes its way into a more focused and breathy space that maintains the insular, almost claustrophobic quality to Astin's work. There seems something inherently womb like about his sound, a kind of trapped warmth that is so fluid and alien, but which maintains familiarity through the physicality of the sounds produced even if you can't tell what the hell any of the specific sources are. As the piece tousles about it morphs quite readily, but with such a logical flow of information that it's tough to tell where one area begins and another ends. Just seamless, endless flow. A real evolutionary approach, survival of the fittest sounds style. The end, with horse hooves, wind chimes and held Gregorian utterances, suggests the fittest might not be anything we humans want to have to compete with. Let's hope it has a soft side...
The second track's sonar feedback and pittering raindrops in buckets percussion contributes to what becomes a lush land of fuzzed drone that's as thick and gooey as one would hope. Astin manages to pull this off without the usual squishing synth approach though, instead layering bassy tones under walls of hiss that somehow manage to meld into a wholly welcoming bath of foamy cacophony. When the drone fades out, it's back to the forest for a contact mic accompanied trek through Himalayan ice melts. Spring's a-springin' on this one, but you still need your sweaters. For every vista of lush greenery, there's some white crevice of snow and ice as yet untouched by the imminent sun. It's a beautiful way to end, totally well conceived, well paced, and endlessly fascinating to listen to. Xiphiidae's sound is never one that pushes itself on you at all. Astin just presents the world, and after that it's yours to explore.
The result is a far more interesting and exciting approach than so many of these units can manage, and is some of the truly original work happening right now. Fits in beautifully with this first year set aesthetic too--each CD is packaged in a different colored insert with transparent anatomical images that are stunning. The CDs are minimally adorned and color coded as well, making this a set worth snagging as a whole... the effect of one hardly does justice to the quartet as a whole and the sounds are, of course, the best...
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