High Noon

Chronique

This duo of tone manipulator and distorter Christian Marclay and electric guitarist and synthesizer whiz Elliott Sharp pushes the limits with twisted sounds galore. Like a painting by Dali, there is a surreal feel to it all, a dreamlike trance interrupted repeatedly by never-ending nightmares. Pops, clicks, warbles, bangs, and dizzy bubblegum-like twists are interspersed with clanking metal to produce collages of some of the weirdest stuff on disk. Marclay is so seldom heard from that each of his recordings is a treasure, and this one is no exception. He takes Sharp's already disfigured lines and manages to mangle them further so that they are barely recognizable in their sliced and diced, transformed evolutionary state. It is hard to identify all of Sharp's instruments, but there is touch of what sounds like bass clarinet, shriveled by Marclay's deconstruction. The results are highly disturbing, but gloriously so. Unadulterated noise/music, there is a clear "take no prisoners" approach, one which is sure to delight or incite.

© Steven Loewy /TiVo