Re: [microsound] New David Toop?

[The Raging Consciousness Desk <ragcondesk@xxxxxxxxx>]

David Toop ~ ?37th Floor at Sunset / Music for
Mondophrentic TM?
Sub Rosa (Belgium) CD-SR163

David Toop is a name often associated with the grouping of
divinatory artists often blazing off into new directions.
Although many early works were quite affable, Toop has  -
in his more recent compositions ? taken the road less
travelled shunning the rectilinear for that of an obtuse,
unclassifiable direction. In ?37 Floors?, Toop plays the
part of cicerone, commanding the listener?s attention as he
has a go at creating  ? ? atmospheres suggestive of
buildings as living organisms, creatures with nervous
systems?? on this new recording. Incongruously, he succeeds
at doing so. Was one to have the ability to hear structural
moaning there is doubt that any artist would have the
ability to demonstrate for the listener in truer fashion? 

The whole of the recording registers in at lower scales and
minor keys. Where other artists may have been inclined to
craft music of drones without copious textures and ?life?,
Toop - ever the imaginative musician - makes use of tactile
reverberations. The listener can feel - through the
extraordinarily resonant sound waves - the immensity of a
large structure. One imagines the shifting of millions of
tons of metal and block repositioning with the earth?s
crust. Occasionally, hissing noises ? identifying the
electrical systems that run throughout buildings like so
many miles of organic nerves ? shoot from the sound field,
piercing the fog-like density of the engaged drones.  So
imaginative is Toop's exercise of emulating supposed
building sounds, that he integrated bird sounds (as well as
insects) ? two life forms one would associate with the
project. There is, at times, a rhythm to the effects
recalling perhaps the mechanical, incessant transfer of an
elevator, or perhaps the seamless command of vast
generators. The recording moves even deeper still,
including the cacophony of the inhabitants every day life;
computers dialling up, telephone sounds, snippets of
half-heard conversations, radios, television or hi-fis
playing.
Sub Rosa is a label that has outlived much of the
competition supplying serious listeners with superlative
music for virtually two decades. This label releases music
with staying power ? making purchases a worthwhile
investment. Better yet ? Sub Rosa has quite often turned
out music well ahead of the curve. Many of the mid-eighties
works (Horowitz/Deyhim, Lew, etc?) are as fresh and
electrifying as they were the time of release. Sub-Rosa has
always managed to record their works with quality
manufacturing standards as well as memorable artwork.  One
supposes it need not mentioning that the Toop encompasses
those same virtues.

It is astonishing to see the number of recordings this
company has released, as a recent visit to their web site
substantiated. It was, in times long gone, a company a
collector could keep abreast. The numbers are now so vast
that doing so would cost a fortune in wages


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