Suddenly Seymour — Skid Row
“Skid Row” is the first sonic fruit of this new project, and it comes in the form of a c60 tape that offers up two side long ‘walls’. The pro-labelled tape comes in a single sided pro colour tape sleeve that takes in a pair of shoes standing on the top of a old Us tenement block- maybe getting ready to jump off. Also featured is a single black & white inlay slip that takes in pictures of Seymour & one of his carnivores plant, and the release track listing etc.
The Little Shop Of Horrors movie was made in 1986, and went onto become somewhat of cult classic. The films plot told of Seymour Krelborn(played by the wonderful prime geek actor Rick Moranis) who is a nerdy orphan working at Mushin’s, a flower shop in Skid Row. Seymour has a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by his boss Mr. Mushnik daily. One day as Seymour is seeking a new mysterious plant, he finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for his supper.
So moving onto the sonic’s with-in, and on side one we have “The Powers That Have Always Been”. This track opens with a sample of one of the songs from the movie, and it’s gospel tinged showy tune that talks about going down town to skid row. The ‘wall’ starts to slowly bubble ‘n’ rise above the sample around the 30 seconds mark, then it slowly but surely starts to black out the sample. At the two minute point the sample has fully faded, and we’re left with detailed & layered ‘wall’, and this brings together the following elements: a bubble ‘n’ churning noise texture, a jittering & juddering noise texture, and a few sub-layers of rumbling, tearing & jittering. With the ‘wall’ Killick masterfully creates this churning & organic type vibe which feels both earthy & sticky flesh like, which is of course perfectly for the sonic portrayal of a massive carnivores plant.
The ‘wall’ remains dense through-out, and mostly it many layers seem to be feed out the same textural patterns, though from time to time I’m sure the speed of the ‘wall’ shifts up & down, or the textures seem to get more agitated- but I’m not sure if this is really happening or it’s just a trick of the ‘wall’. Through in the last ten minutes or so I’m sure I can make out more prevalent use of ragged ‘n’ descending tumbling tones, giving one the sensation of rolling unevenly down a endless muddy & mossy bank.
Onto side two and we have the track “Someone Give Me My Shot!”, and once again this track opens with a sample from the movie, and to me it sounds like the end of the track that was sampled on the first side - this time it’s about the main character singing about being poor, sweeping the floor, and his job. Once again the ‘wall’ starts to rise slowly above the sample around the 30 second mark, and Killick nicely speeds-up the ‘wall’ to match the musical crescendo of the sample. The sample drops out at around the two minute mark, and to start with this ‘wall’ feels a little more open than the first sides one, but once again Killick is cleverly layering together noise textures in a most creative & rewarding manner, & we have here: A sliding chalky like looped drag, A taut & tightly wound jitter, A textured rumble & rip, and a few other sub- textures that weave in & out every so often. At around the 7th minute a more complex folding ‘n’ flipping crackling texture seems to appear in the ‘wall’, and this takes centre stage as the other textures sort of tighten in below it- this part of the track really seems to stimulate & puzzle the mind as you try to follow this taut but almost acrobatic crackling tones path. As we progresses on from this point Mr Killick pulls us deeper & deeper into the web of textures, to point where your mind really does start to get quite strangely disorientated by the complex weave of different textures, and I’m sure somewhere deep in the ‘wall’ I can make out a jittered down almost harmonic like pattern.
I guess I find this ‘wall’ the most satisfying of the two track here, though it certainly is a tough call as each ‘wall’ here is wonderfully convinced & executed- the only criticism I do have of this ‘wall’ is it doesn’t really seem to relate to the release theme, as the first ‘wall’ did.
“Skid Row” is another example of Mr Kellicks mastery of the walled noise/ static texturing form, with both ‘walls’ being really splendid examples of creative & complex noise making. I nearly gave this release a perfect five out of five, but I’ve taken away a point for the 2nd ‘wall’ not really been connected to the theme, but never the less this is a great piece of work, and must be picked up by any self respecting ‘wall-head’ before all the releases 50 copies disappear.