K7K - Speed Freak - tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - $7.00
- (100 minutes)
From: "Factsheet Five" #40 - February '91 - us@
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, "Speed Freak" This is the most accessible yet paradoxically denseest tapes tent has yet put out. It starts with prepared pianos, sequencers and other instrumental goodies [it actually starts w/ 16 tracks of detuned guitars], then puts them through a series of tape manipulations - stereo changes, speed changes, and more. The result is a thicket of sound clearly based on "normal" music, yet resembling the intonations of a giant clockwork computer. Comes with descriptive material explaining exactly what's been done to the music to make it that way. (T/MG)
From: "Gajoob" #7 - summer '91 - us@
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - K7K Speed Freak - Speed Freak can be divided into 4 clear-cut sections per tape side - with the section labelled "A3" on the A side and the section labelled "B3" of the (you guessed it) B side each divided into 4 overlapping parts. The original U(SI(AL materials that provided the basics for Speed Freak mainly use fairly conventional instrumentation (by late 20th century (ev) standards) and the tape/processing manipulations used are also fairly standard. Nonetheless, I like this tape "because" it's my most complex project along these lines yet. Hence the title refers not only to the range of speed manipulations used but also, metaphorically, to the degree of dedication that went into its making. GAJOOB: Speed Freak has cONVENIENCE laboring painstakingly, delving full-force into speed manipulations and tape manipulations. Twisting the original recordings via backwards dubbing and speed alterations of various instruments and prepared piano. The notes that come with the tape break it all down for you as far as instrumentation and processing for each track of the master and each channel on the copy. His notes on preparing the piano are also informative. This is not an easy work. What you hear is not often musical, but a conglomeration of instrumental mutation. The sounds often blur and tumble, occasionally slipping into a sort of cohesion that only this type of mayhem can provide. While other sections are more subtle and huma musicality all their own. This is somewhat academic [if I'd called it "Scraping the Skin off my Dead Lover's Face" & not explained it technically it would've been "dark & disturbing" instead of "academic", eh?], but, overall, an interesting piece of work. SOUND: 4.
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The reviews are not necessarily copied verbatim from the original. Usually, small apparent typos are corrected & obsolete addresses are removed. In some cases, I may choose to leave misspellings, misinformation, etc intact to demonstrate how sloppy the reviewer is. Of course, there may be times when the original packaging was confusing (deliberately or otherwise) which may effect the reviewer's comprehension. The more recent the tapes are, the less likely this is to be the case. Most of the recent tapes provide fairly extensive liner notes. In some cases, reviewers whose native language isn't English may be writing in English anyway for the sake of 'internationalizing' their reviews. Obviously, this may lead to what strikes native English speakers as 'bad' English. Hopefully, equally obviously, this should not be interpreted as a lack of intelligence in the writing. Editorial notes may be inserted into the reviews in [brackets]. In many instances, I (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE) replied to reviews that I disagreed with strongly. These replies are included here. In some cases, I may add additional retrospective comments.