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█ █ P U B L I C . S O U N D
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█ █ presenting our latest release
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r e l e a s e . i n f o
Artist.....: Infant Cycle
Title......: Playout
Rip Date...: 2008-02-16 Cat.No.....: ZHB-XI
Style......: Avantgarde Label......: Zhelezobeton
Quality....: VBRk Type.......: Album
Size.......: 43.58MB Source.....: CDR
r e l e a s e . n o t e s
The Infant Cycle is a project of the Canadian artist Jim DeJong working
under this name since 1994. It may seem surprising, but all these 13 years
he remained in the underground of experimental music, and his name is
well-known only to inveterate enthusiasts and explorers of this strange
phenomenon. The project has put out 6 full-length albums on cassettes and
CD-Rs, several singles and an amazing series of minions called "Clear
Shape" released in ultra-limited editions on transparent vinyls of unusual
forms (square, hexagon and triangle). Jim has also recorded a lot of
collaboration works with such musicians as Big City Orchestra, Dronaement,
Orphx, Aidan Baker, Delphium, etc., some of them were published by his own
label The Ceiling.
The Infant Cycle's music has never been notable for tensity or ornateness,
instead of this it focuses on the subtle aspects of sounding of separate
timbres and their combinations. Such textural orientation allows to create
a completely peculiar effect, and the seeming minimalism carries into the
contemplation of the infinity of possible microsound combinations. In this
connection, Jim knows how to get on with both rhythms and drone ambient
prostration. Among his favourite instruments are Poly-800, shortwaves,
feedback, field recordings and altered vinyl records.
Vinyls deserve special mentioning. Jim carved the runout grooves of records
and thus created simple and unembellished (yet in some ways, unpredictable)
rhythm patterns. Once he decided to start a project severely limiting the
sound sources to one carved playout and the operational sounds of his old
4-speed Califone record player. Additional noises were generated by running
a razor blade along the platter while it was spinning (the blade at
different altitudes, and the platter at different speeds which was picked
up by the needle), and the tone arm being vibrated into different tones by
a violin bow (amplified via the needle).
An early track (called, fittingly "Playout (Early)") appeared on "Lagrimas
De Miedo N░8 - Sund", a compilation CD coming with the eighth issue of
France's "Fear Drop" magazine (2001). Two excerpts were also released as a
free promotional 5" by The Ceiling to announce the then-upcoming CD release
of "Playout" on the American label Merchants Of Sound. But the label soon
folded out, and the recording was lying and lying in the bins of The Infant
Cycle's archive. And now we are infinitely glad to have an opportunity to
present this work to your attention! Limited edition of 250.
Reviews
The Infant Cycle is het pseudoniem waaronder de Canadees Jim DeJong al
sinds 1994 werkt. Hij houdt zich vooral bezig met minimalistische ambient
noise. Dit nieuwste album Playout is eigenlijk al een oud werkje van hem,
waarvan een eerdere versie al eens is uitgebracht op een compilatie van een
Canadees blad. Nu dus ook op CDR uit bij het Russische label Zhelezobeton.
Op het plaatje horen we hoe The Infant Cycle zich bezig houdt met een
platenspeler en een zelf uitgesneden groef in een stuk vinyl. De
platenspeler wordt bewerkt met een vioolstok en een scheermesje, daarnaast
worden ook alle vier de standen (snelheid) van de platenspeler benut.
Het werkje is opgedeeld in twee delen waarbij deel een de bewerking met de
vioolstok is. Dit is een werkje dat een nogal pregnant achtergrondgeluid
heeft, achtergrondgeluid dat zich zo af en toe als een drone naar voren
werkt en waarbij je zo af en toe naar je stereo wil rennen omdat de
versterker wel echt kapot aan het gaan moet zijn. Maar aannemende dat het
niet aan mijn versterker ligt en dit bedoeld is, kan ik niet zeggen dat het
werkje echt blijft boeien, na zo'n minuut of 7 heb ik het allemaal wel
gehoord. Het wordt mij dan allemaal net iets te minimalistisch.
Daar waar het tweede deel met het scheermesje minstens zo minimalistisch is
weet het me toch meer te boeien. Dit is een werkje dat laat horen waarom
Jim DeJong al de kans heeft gekregen om met vele grootheden samen te werken
(zoals Aidan Baker, Orphx, Big City Orchestra), een nummer dat goed in
elkaar steekt en de luisteraar weet vast te houden.
Toch ook met deze afsluiter van het schijfje is het niet zo dat ik verlang
naar meer. Na een half uur is het ook echt wel genoeg geweest. Het is leuk
om te horen hoe The Infant Cycle in 2003 bezig was en het is een werkje dat
ook echt waarde heeft, maar niet een die ik nog erg vaak terug zal
luisteren.
IkEcht.
Jim DeJong's The Infant Cycle has been around for a good thirteen years
already and he released a whole bunch of material on various media. This
new release is not exactly new, since it was recorded in 2003 already an
it's a kinda of conceptual release. The cover says for sound sources 'one
carved-vinyl record groove, record player operational sounds (augmented by
violin bow and razor blade)', which left me thinking what to see. It's now
released here on this Russian label and it's quite a minimal piece of
music, actually two pieces. Records are spun at various speeds and the
razor blades are held at different positions - well, or some such, me
thinks. 'How To Bow A Tone Arm' is a minimal, industrialized piece of music
of continuos drones, which is nice but not great. 'Skinning The Platter' is
more interesting, starting out with a sort of beat, and far away drones,
which slowly seem to disappear, instead of increasing. It's a much more
careful piece of music, with a strange development, but one that holds the
attention throughout, not knowing what to expect next. A great piece going
on here.
FdW, Vital Weekly.
Jim DeJong's project The Infant Cycle has been active on the underground
experimental scene since 1994 and particularly on the cassette scene of the
early to mid 90's. Experimental in every sense of the word, DeJong uses
simple sound sources to create pulses and noises of various types to use as
the basis for his compositions. "Playout" is no exception; the sound
sources used for this recording are a carved vinyl record groove and the
operating sounds of a record player (augmented by violin bow on the tone
arm and a razor blade on the platter).
"Playout" follows a lengthy series of mostly cassette and some CDR releases
along with a series of clear shaped vinyl singles on mainly Canadian and
European labels. Comprising of just two tracks - "How to Bow a Tone Arm"
and "Skinning the Platter" - DeJong's latest album takes essentially quite
basic sounds and reconstructs them into a 30 minute experiment in aural
manipulation.
The first of the two tracks, "How to Bow a Tone Arm", is a low grinding
track augmented with the amplified crackles and scrapes the tone arm
collects. The mood is generally energetic, anxious or edgy, almost
desperate at times. Sounds come in and out of the mix, either loud droning
grinds or gentler more atmospheric tonal sounds generated from the bow on
the tone arm. "Skinning the Platter" is slightly more rhythmic with an
occasional bassy echoed beat over swooping atmospherics giving way to
rounded almost tribal clunks and screeching high-pitched tones. The second
track is the most minimal of the pair, concentrating more on the detail of
the sound and mood it creates. The resultant experience is desolate,
windswept and harrowing in presentation, creating an atmosphere of an
uninhabited industrial landscape and the weird unidentified sounds it
creates from the darkness.
DeJong, similar to the great and respected Aube, uses the simplest of sound
sources to base "Playout" on and, by combining harsher and gentler tones
from the limited sources at his disposal, creates two tracks of differing
mood and presence. Both have their merits and contrasting styles but both
are equally intriguing and present DeJong as an artist with a refined and
well-versed ability to manipulate and reconstruct source sounds into
something completely new and interesting.
Paul Lloyd, Connexion Bizarre.
It might seem that pretty much every thing one needs to know about The
Infant Cycle's Playout can be found in the sources listed on its sleeve:
ôone carved vinyl record groove, record player [an old 4-speed Califone
record player, to be exact] operational sounds (augmented by violin bow and
razor blade).ö But merely listing the sources conveys little about what the
half-hour EP, appropriately sliced in half by its two pieces, ôHow to Bow a
Tone Armö and ôSkinning the Platter,ö sounds like. Playout's the brainchild
of Canadian artist Jim DeJong who has worked under The Infant Cycle name
since 1994 and manages his own label The Ceiling. In ôHow to Bow a Tone
Arm,ö a skipping rhythm of popsùa gallop almostùgenerated from a carved
run-out groove provides a hypnotic foundation for grinding drone tones that
stretch out over top until an abrupt derailment briefly occurs nine minutes
in, after which the rhythm dusts itself off and carries on, now overlaid by
distant industrial noises and faint whistles. To produce his sounds, DeJong
ran a razor blade along the platter while it was spinning, and used a
violin bow on the tone arm to manufacture different tones (amplified via
the needle). ôSkinning the Platterö changes character throughout: it's
variously a pitter-pattering microsound exploration, NASA recording of
alien transmissions, and, finally, an exercise in entropy. The DVD
component of a kindred work, Otomo Yoshihide's Multiple Otomo, argues so
strongly in favour of Yoshihide's approach, one wishes Playout had been
granted the same, admittedly deluxe treatment. Certainly it would be
engrossing to witness the EP material's sounds being generated in addition
to hearing them.
Textura.
Jim De Jong - deus ex machina of The Infant Cycle - is one of those
musicians who apply intelligence to those species of sound that otherwise
would appear as normal, even predictable, thus transforming a few elements
into a stimulating listening experience. Then again he releases short
records, which is also a smart move considering how easy it is to remain
entangled in boredomÆs tentacles when dealing with repetitive structures.
The Infant CycleÆs products mostly belong to turntablism; the only sources
used by De Jong in ôPlayoutö are a carved vinyl record groove and the
ôoperational soundsö of a record player, enhanced by a violin bow and a
razor blade). IÆd also say that there are effects in there, but I wonÆt bet
my house on it. The 30 minutes are divided exactly - 15 minutes per track -
and both pieces are intriguing. ôHow to bow a tone armö uses the noise of
the carved groove as a cyclic rhythm upon which lunar frequencies and
nocturnal atmospheres launch the music into an unsettling growth of regular
insanity that mixes Esplendor Geometrico and early Zoviet France, while
ôSkinning the platterö is a little scarcer at the beginning - the
turntableÆs noise clicking like a water drop - then augments its speed
until we arrive at the borders between non-harmonic electronica and sheer
noise, but always with large doses of calmness and, should I say, class. At
whisper volume, the sounds heard starting around the ninth minute can
recall distant frogs in the silence of the night, but we soon go back to
square one. Very, very nice.
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes.
The enigmatic experimental artist Jim Dejong arrives with a release of high
improved movements of sounds and perspectives created by minimal drone
reverberations accomplished by ambient noise elements which in one or
another way creates a perfect structure, full of industrial drone patterns
increasing its power through the whole minutes. The 2nd track ôskinning The
Platterö is really a very in deep composition floating through ambient
passages and minimal drone elements transforming in rhythmic pulsations
molding the whole structure of the track into a concrete machine of noises
but arranged in definite forms which seems to collapse to each moment, and
suddenly turns so dense ambient platform with a dark atmosphere.
Kerval 210, PAN-0-RA-MA.
p l a y l i s t
1 How to Bow a Tone Arm 14:57
2 Skinning the Platter 15:18
..
30:15
g r e e t i n g s
1way - agw - amok - bass - bcc - boss - cmg - cmc - cms - d2h
def - dh - disc0 - drum - emp - ftd - fwyh - gem - - i8 - ipc
jce - jfk - jrp - just - khz - kinky - kw - lame - maem - mbs
mgc - psycz - r2r - rac - radial - rapid - rks - rtb - sb
sfe - soup - sour - sq - tr - trt - ube - uc - upe - uki
xtc - yard - zi
respect to music lovers worldwide
never forget : go to the show. buy the t-shirt. order the vinyl