Andy Guhl and Norbert Möslang, aka Voice Crack, return with an
LP of sonic experiments created using their eclectic collection of "cracked
everyday electronics". The material on this record was recorded in 1998,
and it's more than possible that this is a re-issue (no press notes!),
but in either case we're backtracking a few years. I have thoroughly enjoyed
any project of late involving this inventive improvisational duo, from
their recent collaborations with Otomo Yoshihide (see bitsbotsandsigns,
released on Erstwhile records earlier this year), or their numerous guest
spots on compilation discs. What attracts me most about their work is their
acute sonic sensibility. Their soundscapes, always improvised and created
using these cracked (i.e., tampered-with) everyday electronics, are filled
with subtle shifts, a host of sounds sometimes quiet and sometimes more
intrusive, and always dramatic and engaging. This is music for active listening;
nothing you want to sit back and relax to, but rather something which invites
and provokes an original response from both your body and your mind. Fantastic
stuff. [Richard di Santo]
www.incursion.org
Voice Crack Shock_Late ENTENPFUHL EMM LP 06 VINYL LP (2000)
Time is fleeting, the hour is late, so now's the time to investigate
these famous Swiss experimentalists who create the most goldarned human
manifestation of noise within the entire European mainland today. This
rek has a few affinities with early Merzbow, about the time of Pornoise
1kg, when he too favoured the use of violent synth swooping attacks along
with tape loops forming a thumping drive rhythm. But Voice Crack's smorgasbord
of smoochy smut is a lot more manageable than the 'Duke of Din', as Merzbow
is known in these parts. The Swiss duo don't want to alienate, and never
settle for an inhuman or repellent noise on this LP. The craft, the manual
labour, the home-madeness of it all is always detectable and ever-present.
You'll hear the same deeply layered 3-D effect as they achieve on the
record they made with Otomo, Bits and Bobs. Far from an empty, formless
grind-o-groans, this is a structured panoply of slices of chocolate devil's
food cake sound-events, all set in motion simultaneously like a pack of
running hares going over the hill. A richness of creative racket. And it
performs miracles of restorative balm for the weary, run-down executive
worker; this music massages all the pleasurable pressure-points on the
body, feeds you, washes you, clothes you and puts you to bed, there to
gently stroke your genitals to orgasm. How many records can offer all that?
Andy Guhl and Norbert Möslang are unique and important experimenters,and
are renowned in their Swiss homeland as inventors of the purple bubble-gum
machine. Bubble-gum filled with tiny insects. And grandfather clocks,
pendulums as grey as Father Time's beard, swinging next to soap-on-a-rope.
Your eggs are done. Take another slippery step upon the rubber matting.
ED PINSENT/The Sound Projector (a brilliant magazine by the way.f.d.)
Vital Weekly 244
VOICE CRACK - SHOCK LATE (LP by Entenpfuhl)
Years and years ago I saw a brilliant concert by two regular looking guys, who were standing behind a large table, filled with cables, objects and broken electronica. They produced furious noises by touching these objects, and while it was loud, they had everything under control. These two guys were Moslang and Guhl, who play with a third guy as Voice Crack (although on this LP just as a duo again). They belong to my favourite improvisers. No laptops, just old fashioned handwork. I am not the only lover, so its a true delight to see this LP coming out on Entenpfuhl, Frank Dommert's sleepy yet never quiet label. Frank is also responsible for the Sonig label, which releases Mouse On Mars related projects and it's to be hoped that this LP will get wide attention. Over the years the sounds by Voice Crack have softened, maybe they got bored with loud noise?, who knows. They play four subtle pieces of crackling electronica, in which more broken stuff arise and fall out. Much a like the stuff modern laptoppers play around, but Voice Crack has a strong own voice and sound much different then the plug-in everybody else is using. So if you are bored with that stuff, hark back to the old stuff and discover Voice Crack. (FdW)