a r t i s t : Nonhorse
t i t l e : Haraam, Circle Of Flame
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Release The Bats
g e n r e : Noise
r l s. d a t e : Dec/2006
t r a c k s : 13
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 52,8 MB
_______________________________________________________________________
Note: All tracks cut off after 3:14, but it's like that on
the CD itself.
Nonhorse is the solo act of Gabriel Lucas Crane from Wooden
Wand & The Vanishing Voice and this is his debut album. On
Haraam, piles of mysterious old cassettes are used as source
material to create magic in a stunning way over 42 moody
minutes. Different audio fragments on top of each other, over
and over again, hand-mixed and orchestrated at what feels like
must have been ritualistic tape laborations taken place
somewhere where the sun never shines. Various echoes from the
past are buried under layers and layers of manipulated voices,
train signals, animal sounds and god knows what. Abrupt
endings which burns like fire in your head. Churches in
flames, the soundtrack to The House With The Laughing Windows
played backwards, alien autopsys, cemetery fog, total
devestation... Haraam is a beautiful junkyard nightmare, a
horrifying and atmospheric album. 13 songs. Mastered by Pete
Swanson.
Usually, his presence is hard to discern on their records, but
G. Lucas Crane canÆt be ignored in a live setting as Wooden
Wand And The Vanishing VoiceÆs lurching, cassette-fucking
mutant Martin Swope. If their music is as much about God Vs.
Satan as their lyrics-about-lyrics-about-God-V-Satan purport,
then Crane is the thrashing demon that needed to be exorcised,
the ôfreeö (or at the very least free-sounding) part of a band
that insists they do very little improvising, the spirit set
(sorta) loose to make the gross squelches in the sea of
jingling bells and summoning songs.
His dark, moody solo squeedle as Nonhorse VsX is
avant-garde-from-normal-people. It's the same feeling you get
when you learn Animal Collective discovered 20th Century
composition by watching horror movies. Translation: the
hand-mixed cassettecore of ôWe See The Signalö only finds its
way to Terry Riley and Christian Marclay and Non by means of
ôRevolution No. 9,ö Grandmaster Flash and Sebadoh. Not saying
that Crane isnÆt a geek of the highest caliber (be sure to
watch dude mix two tapedecks like he was DJ TDK-Slay), but
this sputtering hissgrind comes from someone with pop ears.
Though it sounds like the Conet Project eating a Hershell
Gordon Lewis VHS, his rhythms and loops are actual rhythms and
loops. Funky in its own twisted way. - CHRISTOPHER R.
WEINGARTEN
http://www.releasethebats.com/
_______________________________________________________________________
01-We See The Signal [03:15]
02-Disco For Bad Kids [03:14]
03-Sealed Mountain Under Spires [03:14]
04-Great Defence and Repulsion [03:14]
05-Coffee Among Sharp Rocks [03:15]
06-Levellers Graal [03:15]
07-Running with The Golden Bowl [03:14]
08-Shot Of The City [03:15]
09-The Deck At Night [03:13]
10-The Great Sails Are Down [03:13]
11-On The Gates Of The Bay [03:14]
12-Can We Cross The Border By Day? [03:13]
13-What Is She Doing Now That She's Gone? [03:13]
-------
42:02 min