John Wiese & C.Spencer Yeh — Cincinnati

Cincinnati finds Wiese & Spencer conjuring up a collection of bizarre, jarring and strange sonic pictures that sit somewhere between improv, noise, freak show junk yard percussiveness & off-centre atmospherics. Quite often the album feels like a soundtrack to a very odd and deranged cartoon or Dali type world were the laws of sanity and logic don’t seem to exist- at  times it’s nightmarish and at others sadistically comic .

The pair-up build their strange and bent sonic landscapes from a mixture of voice and mouth sounds, electronics, synth,tabletop bass guitar and manipulated objects. Unlike a lot of improv type stuff the sound here is often very dense & full, and though noise does play a part here things it’s kept fairly tame and not that sonically caustic- with the tracks only once or twice boil up to full noise levels. A lot of the tracks here are centring on vocal sounds which go from chewing, barking, vomit making and deranged/ demented cartoon like chatter or rant. To which the pair add all manner of manic and runway percussive matter, electronic drunken swoons and jarring pokes, sick ’n’ wavering string tone and stagger.

The tone is kept fairy active and careering through most of the album as the pair drag, pull, bounce and rocket you around the place. There are also a few more drone and dwelled based moments on offer too in particular the exit track Stettinius which utilizes a swaying and seasick mixture of string saw ‘n’ pitch, ill percussive like rain textures & grain. Which all to gives you the feeling that your on a dammed ship sailing  on a sea of vomit, drifting slow but surely towards  the end of sanity and reason.

Another very worthy, off- centre and creative sonic journey from the pair- that’s more for fans of the pair improv side than their noisy and ear flaying side.