JOHN WIESE Soft Punk LP

__________________________________________________________

Troubleman (2007) NEW / UNPLAYED / SEALED

DOMESTIC RELEASE

[PLOT SUMMARY]
DESCRIPTION:
John Wiese's newest blast of hyperspeed noise/grind/drone/circuit scramble is also available on pink vinyl while supplies last!
Constantly pushing out at the edges of what we call "harsh noise", John Wiese has continued to hone his unqiue style of hyperspeed cut-up collage into one of the more powerful tongues in the realm of underground electronics. While I'm not a huge devourer of noise collage recordings, I always come back to Wiese's stuff due to his skilled sense of dynamics and his penchant for using some REALLY heavy sounds in his work. His Sissy Spacek project with Cory Ronnau, for example - that stuff is amazing, all lightspeed grindcore blurr chopped up and pieced back together a la musique concrete , turning what would otherwise sound like an adequately nuclear grind attack into something way more abstract and terrifying. The solo recordings I've been picking up from Wiese have also been pretty brutal, juxtaposing his speedy blips of brutal electronic skree and feedback roar with slabs of shining drone. But it's his new full length and first for Troubleman, Soft Punk, that finally intersects the aggro blurrcore of his Sissy Spacek work with the exploding technicolor fractals of his electrical cut-up. The album's sequencing is perfect - Soft Punk opens with "Atural Magic"'s blast of fluttering cicada tronix and chopped up roar that sounds like Randy Yau being devoured by tiny robots, and then moves into skittery improvised scratching on an unknown instrument that becomes overtaken by an avalanche of heavy feedback manipulation. "Recorded Hologram" is where Wiese completely nukes my brain, starting off with whooshing loops of death metal shredding and random audience sounds being focused into a beam of metallic space drone, then erupting again into one of his own Sissy Spacek jams, but whose puzzle peices have been put back together into an impossibly complicated noisecore attack. The rest of the album continues in that vein, carefully positioning his textural drones, complex noise collages and deconstructed grind/no wave recordings (which are culled from bands like Die Monitor Bats and Grand Ulena in addition to Sissy Spacek) against each other for maximum disorientation. This is probably the most intricate work I've heard from the guy yet, and it has so many of his different guises involved that Soft Punk should appeal to anyone that has dug his work with Wolf Eyes, Sunn O))) and Bastard Noise to Sissy Spacek's mindblowing EP's.

REVIEW FROM PITCHFORK: Soft Punk is the first full-length album released by California harsh noise and parasympathetic drone aesthete John Wiese on New Jersey's Troubleman Unlimited, an eager imprint that's been treading the turbulent waters between sonic abstraction and punk aggression for a decade. Through TMU's small-batch/good-records approach, bands like Growing and Double Leopards share shelves with Meneguar and Panthers (not to mention Glass Candy, Tussle and The Walkmen), meeting somewhere near the fuck-all eruptions of Wolf Eyes and now in the careful and meticulous, feverish and intoxicating noise of Wiese. Recorded between 2002 and 2005, Soft Punk is a zenithal intersection of everything Wiese has done right for the past decade: Collagist tendencies meet drone hyper-abilities; assaulting glitches and glissandos come buried between near silence and hair-raising volume; beauty is refracted through sonic brutality. The title Soft Punk seems to have two functions, then: Like its brilliant cover art by Kaz Oshiro-- three bright pink Marshall amplifiers that are, as the back cover shows, simply stretched-canvas, three-dimensional paintings of such fantasy gear-- Soft Punk suggests looking and listening again, of rethinking that ugly noise/punk divide. Just when you think you have a handle on Wiese, he's onto something else. There's always a next level here. No, this isn't punk, and it's not soft. But it's not simple sheets of harsh noise, either. Wiese's constant push and pull and his eventual acquiescence to let things build and burn are capable of rock's epiphany and articulation, even if it's "just a bunch of god damned noise" in the end. Soft Punk is a statement of process, too. Under the name Sissy Spacek-- which he uses for both solo work and collaborations-- Wiese manipulates and processes his own recordings and spews them back as ultra-damaged, something-like-punk, more-like-noise spasms. Here, he's sampling his punk rock friends again, stacking those sounds-- crowd cheers, drum rolls, drumstick counts-- on top and inside of his own. During "Snow Pit", Wiese concentrates on snippets from Olympia trio Die Monitor Bats, using a live set's beginnings, ends, and screaming innards as heavy construction paper and bright crayons. He drops drumstick counts into the mix four times, sprinting in wildly different directions after each. It's either "One, two, three, four, NEAR SILENCE" or "One, two, three four, OH SHIT! LOUD!" Take your chances, sucker. Much like Japanese electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda, Wiese excels in making clean, precise cuts between drastically different sounds, building a drop-dead dynamic capable of stepping from almost-absent rumbles and hums to furious noise bursts. This is apparent on "PS2", where Wiese uses bait-and-switch, build-and-kill mechanics as his chief compositional tool. He buries valleys into peaks and somehow finds peaks that are higher and more rugged with uncanny persistence. A machine-gun rhythm reverses into a glitchy spasm, then settles into a pressurized monotone before ducking into near-nothingness. None of these sounds lasts for more than three seconds, but such vacillations never seem rushed with Wiese. He's always in control, the master of a sonic domain that reaches far-and-wide, high-and-low with enthusiasm and magnetism. It's as though he collects a world of sound and spits it out piecemeal-- methodically, dramatically, emphatically-- through a morphing matrix designed for ricochets. Falling in love with a sliver of sound only to be slapped senselessly by something totally unrelated? It's as maddening as it is exhilarating. But the proof is in Soft Punk's center: During a three-track, mid-album stretch, Wiese eases into a neon pink drone, a beautiful sound that he just won't leave alone. He bends and shocks it, reshapes it, piles drums on top of it, overdrives it, and eventually altogether destroys it. When the track expires with a blitz of malformed waves, Wiese builds a perfect, long-tone aubade reminiscent of Jason Lescalleet's work on "The Pilgrim". For those who haven't heard it, "The Pilgrim" was Lescalleet's gorgeous 74-minute farewell to his deceased father, all gentle tones fanfaring gradually into outer space. For three minutes, Wiese sings a similar sigh, perhaps letting the body of the punk rock he's setting on fire burn away at the midpoint. And then, as he should, Wiese thrusts all of his weight into "New Wave Dust", perhaps the album's most chaotic, relentless, damaging track. Power electronics? Oh my. Punk rock? If only.

Don't forget to check out all of our other CRUCIAL BLAST -approved AVANT METAL / MUTANT NOISE releases in our Ebay store and on auction. Lots of OOP and RARE items too!

[CONDITION+INFO]
BRAND NEW, UNPLAYED ITEM .

>> WE DEAL IN HEAVY JAMS

CRUCIAL BLAST is an independant underground label and mailorder specializing in cutting edge, "experimental" heavy music from the indie universe with a particular focus on avant-Metal, heavy mutant noise and drones, and edgy/abrasive/weird "outsider" rock and pop. You'll find everything from art-damaged European metalcore to amplifier-exploding psychedelic drones in our listings, which we update every week. We like our sounds weird, and we like 'em heavy. You're not going to find the popular flavor-of-the-month "alternative" music here...these are new mutations in extreme music.

>> SHIPPING AND PAYMENT INFO
INSURANCE is optional, but recommended,as we are not responsible for packages lost or destroyed in the mail unless they are insured. ***As stated above, we combine Shipping & Handling on multiple item purchases, so grab more noise and save!***
If you want INSURANCE, please add $1.50 for up to $50 coverage or add $2.20 for coverage up to $100. Seller is NOT responsible for any package lost by the USPS... so if it's a valuable item, insurance is suggested. PayPal payment get next day shipping upon receipt (and same day if we receive payment before 12 noon!). NO PERSONAL CHECKS ACCEPTED.

NOTE: INTERNATIONAL BIDDERS:
1st CLASS INTERNATIONAL TO CANADA & MEXICO: $9.00 1st CLASS INTERNATIONAL shipping/handling for this first LP, and $1.00 each for any additional CD, 7", or audio cassette purchased at the same time.
1st CLASS INTERNATIONAL TO REST OF THE WORLD: $13.50 for this first LP, $5 each for any additional LPs, and $2.00 each for any additional CD, 7", or audio cassette purchased at the same time.

All international shipments are sent UNINSURED unless buyer specifically requests international insurance rate, which will be quoted. NOTE: INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING WITH INSURANCE is very expensive!! Please contact us via email for your specific shipping costs prior to bidding!!
Payment is expected within 10 DAYS from the end of auction. THANKS!!

Hit us up with an email
if you have any questions.

Click here to check out
our other current auctions !