It’s not often that I make it down to the DMV, but this was unmissable. I’ve been wanting to check out Rhizome for years now, and as luck would have it my good friends recently moved to Takoma just a few blocks away on the other side of the Red tracks, so I was able to feed two birds with one seed. I knew the renowned city-funded arts space was a plucky old house in a rapidly developing neighborhood, but the actual sight of it standing stubbornly in the shadow of enormous copy-paste residentials was striking. Rhizome maintains an eclectic curatorial schedule that I gather only becomes more so as time goes on; what began as a humble spot for improvised music and visual/performance art now also hosts, well, stuff like this. Also on display was Selena Noir Jackson’s exhibition Faces of America. The show was tightly run (started at 7:30 and was over by 10, a dream of a Sunday night) and drew a modest yet devoted crowd. Wonderful vibes that have me already thinking about my next trip south. Free DC!
AS SURVIVING TOTAL has an ambitious and detailed conceptual focus based on loss as both a personal and legal phenomenon (the latter encompassing “litigious judicial practices” and “the quantitative measure of pain”). I only know this from their bio; the music itself didn’t incorporate any samples, just straightforward slow-paced noise, raw and rumbly, riding right on the edge of harsh. It was well-paced, and while I got the sense that it’s a newer project, they had great control over a stripped-down setup. They dodged predictable inflection points in favor of letting things continue organically, which sometimes felt aimless, but mostly satisfying.
VASTERIAN, named after the Ligotti story “Vastarien” (unsure of the significance of the misspelling), was another local I was unfamiliar with. My pre-gig research turned up a recent tape described as “hypnotic, lo-fi radio noise,” leading to expectations that were immediately subverted when the set launched straight into maxed-out meathead power electronics, complete with copious beer-chugging. After the initial shock wore off I was prepared to be bored, but the execution was so solid and energy level high enough that I was thoroughly entertained. As someone who loves the textures of shortwave, so I’m always happy to see one on a table, even if it ended up getting drowned out. I think I overheard that this was their first live appearance; impressive if that’s the case.
LUSTRE CHANTANT was another surprise. A duo comprising sound artist and instrument-builder Max Hamel, whose solo tapes I like a lot, and Chris Griffiths, who booked this show as well as many others at Rhizome, they’re named after a mythologized “singing chandelier” designed by French scientist and inventor Frederik Kastner. The material itself is an attempt to approximate what this lost instrument may have sounded like. Tonight that manifested as a quiet electroacoustic set on the upper floor of the space, structured around small motorized gadgets and minimal electronics. There were somatic aspects too: Hamel bowed a piece of scrap metal while Griffiths rubbed shrapnel on the floor with his foot. Lovely stuff that reminded me just as much of Fornnordiska klanger as it did Rie Nakajima or Takamitsu Ohta.
This was my third(?) time seeing MAX JULIAN EASTMAN play and he continued the trend of constant improvement. His haphazard arsenal looks like a electronics store bargain bin but boils down to a simple combo of source tape playback via deck and walkman plus mixer, and the racket it makes is larger than life. The oddball free-associative stumble pays homage to his mail art heroes, but it’s delivered with a unmistakable harsh ethos. It was during this set that the PA started getting pushed to the max (intended) and you could feel the crunch shaking your bones. I especially liked the repetitive barking with the walkman pressed against his mouth, which gave the proceedings a shambolic, Dilloway-esque lurch.
PSYCHIC SENSE ORGANS were the main draw and they did not disappoint. A brand new initiative formed by two of the best and brightest in harsh noise—Brad Griggs of Heat Signature and Action/Discipline fame, Joe Wang a.k.a. Outdoor Horse Shrine—capped off their inaugural mini-tour with a brutal split-stereo that brought the house down. Having seen both of these guys perform multiple times, it was a treat to see their distinct approaches meld. Griggs deployed his tried-and-true mic feedback assault with plenty of screaming to support as Wang forced piercing shrieks and squeals from his trusty mixer. At first the two halves ebbed and flowed independently, but as the artists settled in they began to respond to each other. By that time, however, someone got a bit overzealous with the table-rocking and the legs kept collapsing, so I got lost in the mosh until one of the power strips got switched off. Still grateful to have had six minutes of brain-liquefying bliss, and I’m eager to dig into their tour tape.
Noise Not Music 