Even if you haven’t yet heard the first release by B33N, it should come as no surprise that Seamus Williams once collaborated with New England neighbors Staubitz and Waterhouse. I bring this up because the same flavor of masticated mundanity that so enthralled me when I first heard “Pickup for Mark” on the Pawtucket duo’s first double-A 7” emerges right off the bat in this debut collaborative release from Williams (of TVE and Ayurvedic fame) and fellow anti-music apostle Liam Kramer-White (check out excellent solo documents Every Moment Worldwide and this year’s For Every Moment Upon Which It Was, as well as LOL with Arkm Foam as LMFAO), though the overall effect is markedly different. The pragmatically named project—Kramer-White: “It’s called Been [sic] because it’s something we’ve been working on”—sees the two artists sharing recording and editing duties, the former and quite possibly the latter accomplished using mobile phones. Electroacoustic manipulations are applied sparingly, usually adding only minimal wrinkles or tinctures to a mostly intact soundscape rather than complete restructurings. The single 3”-length piece that comprises Whole Kernel Niblets is wrapped in a queasy plastic sheen, evoked by both diegetic sounds from food packaging and shopping carts and the distinctive digital slur of gutted spectra and bitrate reduction. Though largely absent of explicit human presence, it at once captures and replicates the rhythmic, numbing tedium that occupies a much more significant portion of everyday life than many would care to admit, as well as the fleeting bursts of happiness and horror that hide in the most inconsequential-seeming of moments.
Noise Not Music 