The best part about running this blog is getting music from strangers in my inbox. Two or three weeks ago, I received an email from Bubo, Tuco, and Tumbo of the Humal/Animan Collectives (sic) with a shit-ton of RARs. Each RAR contains one or two full albums of musty, hissy noisy trash, plus scans of gorgeous handmade artwork. I'm currently in the process of downloading and archiving all of them. Rapidshit links expire within a matter of days, so grab these as soon as you can.
Speaking of my email, my email is flooded with new entries for the ADHD Songwriter's Competition. Come back this weekend when I post the latest entries.
The Crumbling AntiMusic of BuboTucoTumbo
I literally have no idea how most of this music was made. It's not jazz, tho it sounds improvised at times, and doesn't sound especially electronic - there's an organic hands-on feel to these steadly-thumping rhythms that just go shambling on along like some Rube Goldberg device (perhaps machines were used?) as all manner of hard-to-identify mystery sounds create dense, odd textures; it's self-described as "Totally Free - SoundAndFormDeconstructor -CrumblingAntiMusic."
It's a hugely prolific project - when I was first contacted, 12 releases were up and I see some more have been added, but much of it is of a visual nature. And like our old pal The Everyday Film, I've been given not a shred of explanation or biographical information. When I asked, they replied:
-You should create your own opinion about these lines.
It's better if you first listen to all the albums.
-I have no web space other than mail.
Bubo/Tuco/Tumbo is my temporary project.
I am a painter; took a long break away from other projects earlier this year and devoted some time to creative areas in which I have no natural talents, skills or knowledge.
Material that arrived to you, was created between March and August 2011.
It's better if you first listen to all the albums.
-I have no web space other than mail.
Bubo/Tuco/Tumbo is my temporary project.
I am a painter; took a long break away from other projects earlier this year and devoted some time to creative areas in which I have no natural talents, skills or knowledge.
-Bubo/Tuco/Tumbo is only the soundscape for an art catalog which is now nearing completion and will be totally free, just like Bubo/Tuco/Tumbo vibrations – this material is in no way intended for marketing but is meant as collective property.
-BuboTucoTumbo of Humal/Animan Collective
All free downloads, all available here:
BUBO - TUCO - TUMBO
The first batch:
I started with album #1 and wasn't sure if I'd continue - it's mostly in the Hafler Trio/Derek Bailey school of plunk-and-scrape improv that doesn't do much for me. But the final 3 tracks really got me, and I continued to find some really good stuff scattered throughout, e.g.: "Reverberatordog" on album #5; the first couple tracks on #6, an album that features lots of amusing jibbering/chattering; and what are those sounds on #7: porn on one track? Monkeys on another? It all makes the Residents sound like Air Supply. "APOPHENIANIMALS" on #8 is really good, tho it doesn't need to be 19 minutes long.
#9 is called "THE BEST OF TUCO," and they ain't kidding. The whole thing's pretty solid - start with this one.
The second batch (all album titles named after lines from "The Good The Bad & The Ugly" for some reason):
"TUCO -1- A" is a pretty interesting album, tho I can't tell if it's on-line anymore. It, like, "TUCO -1-B" feature some atonal Jandek-like guitar thrumming (I like tracks # 134 and 139). Much of "TUCO - 2 - A" sounds like hitting guitar strings with drumsticks, except for the last track, the ghostly disembodied voices of track # 152.
TUCO -2- B starts with industrial drones and silences, ends with string instrument scraping. I like #156. "TUCO -3- B" is nothing but noise tracks, all exactly 1:15 long. Didn't like.
That's as far as I've got. Along with some lovely artwork, they've added some new albums since - anyone want to check 'em out and leave a comment?
BUBOTUCOTUMBO - 1 - ROOMFIELD RECORDINGS 2012
A week or so ago, an anonymous correspondence, pertaining to js heaven. The title: Antimusic dilemma. Its author was the enigmatically named BuboTucoTumbo, who is a painter turned sound artist, looking for some insight on the electricity flowing through his veins and out his fingers. I can relate to the 'What have i done?' feeling of curiosity, awkwardness, pride, shame, fear, lust that comes from channeling the air, creating bizarre soundscapes, immaterial cinema firing through synapses.
On Roomfield Recordings we find three recordings clocking in at 12 minutes each, filled with honeybee electrical impulses, rootless granular drone, flickers of speech, field recordings, knocks bumps and scrapes. The overall effect is monochromatic, stark, extreme, silhouetted. It seems psychological; the drifting drone reminds me of being unable to concentrate, and having a broken tape loop in yr mind, that won't let you sleep. The pulsing electrostatic makes for a calming, analog influence in the miasma, tactile, familiar, as well as providing some cohesion to the tracks. The feeling i get when listening to this is of listening to early industrial music and tape culture, blind anonymous transmissions from a nocturnal realm; esoteric names, very little data. Tapes found at the bargain bin, or lost in a warehouse. Dusty, subjective, crumbling.
Listening to BuboTucoTumbo creates a potent air, like rich incense. It breathes and swells, particularly when one is alone. While most dark ambient, industrial, or experimental music makes you feel like yr in a slasher flick, like the guy with an ice pick is hiding behind the door, Bubo's music is more surreal, more artsy. More about the blurred lines, the grey zones. Its like a Brothers Quay full-length, rendered to tape. The odd rustlings and bumpings make it seem like something is happening, but yr not sure what it is, and the ubiquity of the electrical hum gives it an air of reminiscence, embodying the nervous system and its mysteries.
The question i ask, every time i come across a piece of media, whether its something i come across myself, or if somebody points something out to me is, do i like this? Do i enjoy listening to this? If i were to stumble upon this in a store, or on a friend's shelf, would i listen? I've had a number of atmospheric days listening to this recording, moving around the house like a specter, in some electrical zen somnambulism, listening through the floor boards, listening through the vents. It makes for pleasant company, and it works as both wallpaper music as well as active listening. I find it to be more effective when yr paying attention to it, there's a lot of nuances, and like with most 'experimental' music, it is best played moderately loud, to pick up on the details. Also, be advised, depending on who you live with, this music will most likely creep out yr roommates. Stacked up against more established dark ambient/noise musicians such as Wolf Eyes, Lustmord, Nurse With Wound, Non, it holds water. There is nothing incidental about this music, it has weight and gravity. It sounds good. S/he claims that these compositions are, 'quite primitive, and without aesthetic.' I would argue that artists are poor judges of their own creations, especially when one worships interesting sounds. I DEFINITELY hear aesthetic in this work.
I am intrigued and excited by this discovery. I like that he's just making sounds, with no career motivations or status to burn. He (?) (i'm not even sure if its a he) is just invoking visions, and doesn't understand them, so feels the need to put them outside of him/herself. S/he was even very humble and non-assuming, when contacting me, not expecting me to go through the canon. As such, i probably will.
I'm very pleased to have RoomField Recordings in my life, and the cavalcade of sounds to come. You can expect to hear more from BubuTucoTumbo here at Js Heaven. In the meantime, you can also get the rest at the Antimusic blog:
Ratordog.blogspot.com
Seven Minutes of Decay-Newly Industrialized EP (2012)
Part of what is, as far as I can tell, a collective going by Ratordog, Seven Minutes of Decency goes in for ultra low-fi, squalling noise. It's a violent re-working of Pere Ubu's classic "Sentimental Journey", with the aid of 30 years' worth of advances in music technology. Screeching feedback, crumbling pottery, smashed glass, someone fingerbanging a windchime: I hear all these noises and a helluva lot more in the fourteen tracks, none of which clock in at over 59 seconds (let alone one minute!).
If this week is looking to be as hellish for you as the winter of 2011-12 was for me, then this is right up your alley. For terminal misanthropes and music-haters everywhere.
