Kam Hassah — Private Conversation Vol. 1

Kam Hassah is one (and the longest running I believe) of the many projects of Matteo Castro, who recently was widely appreciated for his work as Lettera 22 and for his label Second Sleep.

This “Private Conversation Vol. 1” c20 tape is released on yet another excellent Italian noise label called Joy De Vivre, hailing from Napoli.

I had the luck to share the bill with Matteo on lots of occasions, and the few times I wasn't too drunk to understand what was going on around me his performances have been top notch. His recent acquisition of a reel to reel machine, which I saw in action just last year, opened Matteo a new road to explore. “Private Conversation Vol. 1” is focused on reel-to-reel tape use and abuse, and as the liner notes state, the elements used here are only “reel to reel, field recordings, room”.

Matteo's approach on side A is somehow pretty close to both harsh noise wall and to the work of academic tape-manipulation pioneers. Sounds of chatter and nature are mangled by the twisting, fast forwarding, rewinding and decaying of reel-to-reel tape, creating a constant flow of hiss and rumbling buzz punctuated by clearer sounds, pops and crackles. As in Kam Hassah's tradition, the dominating frequencies are the low ones, but the sheer variety of sound elements and the extremely crude and simple nature of sounds create a very interesting and fresh mix that is a pleasure to endure.

Side B shifts to a slow and relentless pace of swooshing loops and hiss-filled silence that get engulfed by a crunchy mass of reverbered junk metal sounds and high pitch microphone feedback. It's a very solid composition, probably even more interesting than the first one. The grain of the sound is the same as that of side A, but the way the tape is treated here is different, showing Matteo's ability to exploit the vast range of possibilities that this medium offers.

In conclusion “Private Conversation Vol.1” is a very good tape with an extremely focused and strong approach that for once could be appreciated both by fans of pure harsh noise and by chin-stroking admirers of old school academic electronics.

I hope that Matteo will continue to abuse his reel-to-reel and come up with more great works.