Nickolas Mohanna — Phase Line
Both pieces are constructed from electronic sounds, often clean and not really too far from the dance-floor; but ‘Phase Line’ isn’t an album for dancing… The first track, ‘Split X’, starts off very promisingly; with a flurry (if not barrage) of sounds, moving around the sound-field. However, after about ninety seconds, a device becomes apparent and then somewhat overwhelming in the music: the ‘delay swirl’. The delay swirl is a time honoured move in pedal noise; the artist in question making adjustments to the ‘delay time’ of the effect, with dramatic, exaggerated gestures. We don’t get to see the theatrical flourishes here, but we do get to hear the resulting sounds - a lot. Without obsessing over it, the rest of the piece is marked and often dominated by these delayed sounds; ranging from accelerating/decelerating echoes, to strangulated, ‘tight’ reverberations. It becomes a tad distracting. It reminds the listener of the physical act of twisting pedal knobs, whilst the overall sound feels like it wants to promote a more detached tone, in more obviously electroacoustic territory. Its possible that I just come from a background where this kind of delay swish and self-oscillation is now a cheapened sound/device, whilst Mohanna doesn’t.
‘Interstate’ begins as its predecessor ended, with high pitched, stretched sounds flickering through the speakers. Soon after this a pounding beat enters, though its more of a pulsing rhythm than a ‘beat’. Within a few minutes, though, the delay twiddling is - bizarrely - back: like ‘Split X’, this becomes a burden. However, ‘Interstate’ is a more open, spacious piece; with overt melodic elements introduced around the six minute mark, and a couple of more restrained sections that are welcome listening. But, alas, the piece is still marked out by bouncing delays and much use of tight (’very small, tiled bathroom’ setting) reverberations. It is the more satisfying of the two pieces, but its still cut from the same cloth.
‘Phase Line’ is an odd album. Thinking on it, its almost a non-noisy noise album: I suspect if it was dragged through some distortion pedals, you might have a reasonable harsh noise effort. It has many tangled elements, falling over one another; but without any true sense of direction or coherence - or even plain assault. Certainly - beyond a passage after eleven minutes, where it threatens to build - the first piece is overwhelmingly chaotic, but to no end or effect. The second track, ‘Interstate’ is more measured, though; with a couple of nice sections: the first around the eight minute mark, where sounds break up, trying to enter the foreground of flapping synth tones; and the second very near the end, where Mohanna pares back to reined-in feedback and bassy undercurrents - though, even here, the delay pedal lurks… Its not irredeemable material - but it does feel more like material than a finished work. There are often subtle sounds and movements hiding in the background, but, more often than not, they are obscured by less exciting events up front - and these events invariably involve ‘the delay swirl’.