a r t i s t : Birchville Cat Motel
t i t l e : Chaos Steel Skeletons: Three
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Celebrate Psi Phenomenon
g e n r e : Noise
r l s. d a t e : May/2006
t r a c k s : 12
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 189.5 MB
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Long in the works 'career retrospective' from one man free noise avant
rock doom drone wrecking crew Campbell Kneale and his long running
Birchville Cat Motel. Six discs, spanning the life of BCM, unreleased
tracks, rarities, long out of print lathe cuts, lps and cassettes, a
mighty impressive and awe inspiring overview of a project that as far as
we're concerned has yet to release a bad record. Which is sort of mind
blowing considering the sheer volume of material Kneale has released
over the last however many years.
So Chaos Steel Skeletons is definitely essential for all of you BCM
fanatics. No matter how on the ball you were, how much of a constant
eBay lurker you've been, there's no way in hell anyone, except the man
himself, has all of these tracks. And the crazy thing is, this six disc
set, is just a -selection- of tracks, a true comprehensive retrospective
would have required some sort of box set of Merzboxian proportions. Not
that we would have complained, in fact, just like most of you, we
wouldn't hesitate to sign up for a 50 cd Birchbox RIGHT NOW. Just say
the word.
For BCM newbies, we would probably recommend Chi Vampires or Our Love
Will Destroy The World, as Chaos Steel Skeletons might be a bit much, or
a bit expensive, but hell, it's all fucking great, and the more we think
about it, the more we realize that maybe there might not be any better
place to start that a 6cd set. But now those unfamiliar with the Birch
are probably wondering, okay then, but what the hell does it sound like?
Well, as stated above, Birchville hovers in some amorphous musical area
we'd have to label 'free noise avant rock doom drone' or something like
that. Imagine Sunroof! and the Dead C and Reynols and Hototogisu and
Vibracathedral Orchestra and SUNNO))) and Wolf Eyes and the disparate
sound worlds each inhabits, now imagine one little man who can flit
effortlessly between them all, going from grinding chaos to soothing
drone in the blink of an eye. From huge buzzy fuzzed out ragas to
grinding downtuned pummel to blissy ambience to plinkplonk and clattery
mayhem to shrieking high end skree and everything in between. The stuff
on these discs tends toward the noisy (there's even a sort of Sabbath
cover on volume three) as these are what might be referred to as 'the
early years', but even at his noisiest, Kneale manages to sneak in some
wondrous melody or soothing sound, even if it does often get totally
obliterated moments later. You can by these double discs separately, but
c'mon, you're not fooling anybody, buying two discs of a six disc set is
sort of like petting half a kitten, or playing half a guitar, or
watching half a movie, it just isn't right!!!
As always, SUPER LIMITED, handsomely packaged in cool wallpaper sleeves,
and each disc comes with liner notes about each song, not always
entirely informative, but usually pretty darn funny!
VERY RECOMMENDED!!!
http://www.aquariusrecords.org
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CD1:
01-Chinese Automotive Dismantler [05:25]
02-Mercury Vapor Lamp [05:13]
03-Tinfoilteeth [07:07]
04-Supernaut [02:39]
05-Glamourpuss 2 [06:31]
06-Endless Power Sea [06:55]
07-Cranes Are Sleeping [08:17]
08-Sex Layer Cake [10:00]
CD2:
01-A Muslin Veil Of Bravery [16:41]
02-Thus Passes The Glory Of The World [18:46]
03-Clean Shaven Apostle [18:36]
04-Serpentine Writhing Score [09:55]
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116:06 min