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Tom Recchion - Chaotica

(Birdman Records - birdmanrecords.com)
[Genres: experimental, sound collage, avant-garde]

recchionchaotica.jpg (15725 bytes)This '96 album, played with tape loops, prerecorded records and cassettes, and keyboards, is really interesting. The first piece is completely abstract, while songs like "Flying Weather" use instrumental samples, looped, that come from much larger songs. This is all really well done, especially since they are all live improvisations, and were not edited after they were created. He gives special thanks to Esquivel, and there are definitely some influences running amok around this music. Pieces like "Space Ship" and many others sound like many tape collagists (such as People Like Us and The Bran Flakes), because they use what sounds like odd little scraps from old records, except there are no vocal samples, and it's slower and experimental. Lots of this stuff is very inspired, like the sad, powerful, Godspeed-esque "Enormos Horses," "The Perpetual Motion Clock," which like a labyrinth of music, and "Chaotica," the squiggly, crashy mixture of sounds that closes it off. Mix elements of People Like Us, Rainer Buerk, Esquivel, Matthew Ostrowski, some maraschino cherries, and possibly Philip Glass… this is what you get. Recommended.

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