From Che Sent Sat, Oct 24th 1998, 23:13
Picked up the new 12" on Thrill Jockey today. Was I sleeping and this came out 6 months ago, or are you guys slacking in letting me beat you to the punch for a change? :) 2 tracks - A side: To Day Retreival (sic). A fast, intricate marimba line weaves in and out of electric bass bashings, with verrry subtle delay/fx noises underneath. At the end the marimba & bass drop away leaving the fx noises. B side: Adverse Camber is more difficult to describe. Piano is overlaid on weird processed sounds. I'd say it's an ambient noise track. Not your typical Ae tracks. Sorry I haven't picked up LP5 so I could compare & contrast it. FWIW, the so called "artist" that designed the cover of this thing should donate their corneas - they obviously aren't making very good use of them. People say one of the advantages of vinyl is the larger cover area, but in this case it's a distinct disadvantage. Has anyone heard that a limited 2nd one-sided Ae vs. Tortoise 12" just came out? If so, is it different tracks? While I'm at it, I may as well review the Gescom track on the Push Button Objects "Unauthorized" 12". God knows it's been sitting around unplayed long enough (anyone else have a dread of playing vinyl?). I finally managed to decrypt the Designer's Republic label to determine that the Gescom track was the 2nd one on side 2. I couldn't identify it by ear because PBO seem pretty intent on sounding like Sean & Rob (which is all I'll say about the other 3 tracks, not bad if you're into Ae wannabes). The Gescom track has an ever-so-mild hiphop flava, not so much the beat (which is kinda stiff), but the vocal sample ("because"?). A basic "boom boom cha" beat under a vocal sample - the beat gets crazy for awhile, then it drops away for some weird manipulation of the sample. This is the New Noise, children, but like the Old Noise, it's hard to tell if it's breaking new ground or just wanking about... I keep hoping they'll drift back towards the hiphop found on Incunabula, while incorporating all the weirdness they've accrued since. Alas, this track is the closest they've come to granting my wish. Che