artist : Smegma
title : Rumblings
date : 2005
label : Hanson Records
genre : Noise
release date: 06.16.2006
tracks : 15
bitrate : VBRkbps
size : 66,2 MB
source : CDDA
type : Album
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Noise fans might recognize Smegma from a collaborative album
with Wolf Eyes called Beast. But if Smegma can be considered
part of that scene, it's only by default: they've been making
their psychedelic free-jazz noise for more than 25 years.
They began by helping to found the Los Angeles Free Music
Society, and have collaborated with everyone from Wild Man
Fischer to Merzbow to the infamous rock critic Richard
Meltzer along the way. The noise scene has grown unto them
while they've kept a low profile and persistently crafted
their avant-garde improvisations under the radar, firmly
outside of the mainstream due to their confrontational sonics
and formless compositions. (And, just maybe, the fact they
named their band after uncircumcised dick leak.)
My first exposure to Smegma was from somewhere less expected:
The Completed Soundtrack for The Tropic of Nipples, in which
Meltzer and Robert Pollard filled opposing tracks with
faux-beat poetry over free-jazz and punk rock backing bands,
respectively, each competing for the best non-sequitur. (One
of my favorites: "There's no need for senseless bloodshed/
The mosquitoes dropped their javelins and looked on/ Oh man,
far out, it's king frog") Smegma provided the soundtrack to
Meltzer's contributions, and he's since become their singer
under the alias "Borneo Jimmy".
Just because there are vocals doesn't make Semgma's music any
more accessible. Meltzer's voice is another disorienting
texture, another oblong puzzle piece where we need a corner.
Whispering different euphemisms for the homeless-- and
hamburgers-- has never been creepier than on the scraping and
squealing of "Bunstuffer", and the morale of the story told
in "Worms" will make sense to only the most devoted alleyway
wino. If there are themes present in Meltzer's rambling
streetcorner fables, they're still not a hook to hold onto,
so don't think Smegma less challenging for having a
"vocalist"; if anything, they're more so.
Despite the names mentioned above, Rumblings is not an album
of trance-inducing sine waves or face-stabbing feedback;
Smegma create a unique cacophony from tape loops, blurting
horns, pots and pans, sheet metal, radio static, duck calls,
and Meltzer's ramblings. Thinking about Rumblings in terms of
free jazz is more useful than contemporary noise analogues,
but there's still potential to be hypnotized by the sounds on
Rumblings. Tracks like "Rails (Unhinged)" blend the faraway
sound of typewriters and office equipment, along with what
sounds like an unmanned grocery cart rolling down an asphalt
incline, into a calming and evocative soundscape. "In an
Ornamental Garden" mixes the squealing saxophone that
dominates Rumblings with traditional Eastern flutes and
strings, and even harsher songs like "Electron" or "Fool For
You..." give quirky interruptions to their droning, belying a
sense of humor under the claustrophobic choas.
The really strange parts are when they actually try to play
their instruments and veer into trashy, incompetent punk.
Just when I think they're clever confrantationalists, they go
and rationalize the argument that avant-garde musicians "just
can't really play"-- songs like "Moonleggs", "Worms", and
"Rumblings" sound like a completely different band, a group
of wanna-be rockabilly misfits making up songs in the garage.
Smegma aren't just avant-garde, they're committed to staying
amateurishly campy, balancing their cacophonies with earnest
attempts at open-mic-night punk. Whatever you want to call
it-- "noise" doesn't quite cut it-- they're consistent about
it, and they're unwaveringly dedicated to confounding
audiences with their outsider rock.
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01-Ooops#1 01:13
02-Worms 02:39
03-Johnny No! 02:53
04-In an Ornimental Garden 03:44
05-ELECTRON 03:51
06-Bunstuffer 06:46
07-Rails Uncoupled 04:17
08-Moonleggs 02:09
09-Smoke 02:08
10-Fool for Your... 03:19
11-Rumblings 02:13
12-Oops#2 01:09
13-Supersimple 01:52
14-Oops#3 01:39
15-Rails 04:21
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44:13 min