Broken Penis Orchestra — Plays With Itself

Broken Penis Orchestra is a cut-up noise project from the U.S.A headed by a guy that calls himself Dick Flick, and “Plays Itself” is a reissue of a limited CDr originally released in 2003. The intentions of the tape are very clear from it’s outset , and  the artwork is a completely messy color collage of body parts, animal entrails and god knows what else, and one of the tracks is called “Could Someone Please Turn This Off?”.

Fittingly, the contents of this tape make up for a chaotic and somehow fun trip in retarded cut-up noisy plunderphonics/plagiarism courtesy of Mr. Dick Flick.I will not go into the details of each track this time because it would be pointless and my brain couldn't quite handle it. Your ears will be attacked so many times and from so many sides during this listening experience that by the end of side B you will feel completely disoriented, beaten and fuck, even violated.

I'd say that listening to Broken Penis Orchestra is a bit like getting a musical lobotomy, which is a compliment of course.The stolen, chewed and mangled sounds are carefully adjusted in anarchical yet coherent patterns, a collection of brilliant and unexpectedly catchy loops, bursts of piercing noise, sudden changes and blind turns that blend in an endless overlapping of layers and layers of some of the wildest cut-ups ever.

Some of the origins of the samples are very easy to spot but I think it would be impossible to track down all of them. Also they're so minced and destroyed that it doesn't really matter. For example I recognized tiny bits of Fantomas' first record “Amenaza El Mundo” and what I believe are extremely echoed Melt Banana vocals somewhere on side A.

The experience of this tape is both interesting and nauseating, and definitely mind-boggling. Some “quiet” moments remind me of a broken Nurse With Wound record, while other crazy spurts of aggressive and manic sounds call to mind Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock compositions. “Plays Itself” has lots of ingredients and leaves a weird aftertaste. It's the sound rendition of something Arnold Schwarzenegger would drink the morning before a body building competition. With lots of eggs in it.

If you didn't get  thew first time round, it’s worth tracking down now-I loved this tape! It's fun, extremely challenging and well composed. Recommended to lovers of Negativland, Nurse With Wound, Violent Onsen Geisha, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock and the likes