CD: C3R Records 004 - Canada - 2005
Nihilist ace blues for time travel - 7:46
Pop up in strange beds with a smile - 8:08
As real as it gets: a psalm for ultra-woman - 6:27
How much noise can we make? (let's find out) - 5:04
The sad clown called the law - 4:20
Announcement to all the graceful sailors - 1:40
Music for faking - 12:32
For the titletrack Ratkje and Marhaug used a sample from ‘Aguirre’.
*
Review:
Scavenging through sonic detritus and muck, Ratkje and Marhaug re-establish the authority of noise. Music For Faking might suggest chaos and anarchy, but it's so well structured and machine-honed that at times it sounds composed, even though it was recorded in real time with no overdubs at Maja's place. Almost everything is impregnated with distortion, even the "calmer" spots: just listen to the title track, where a deranged treatment of Popol Vuh's Aguirre becomes the excuse for a chorale of a million creatures from some sort of sonic underworld. In "The sad clown called the law", amidst a hellish mess of twisted saxophones, telephone signals and television voices, an oblique laugh is looped to create a pattern so absurd that you can't help laughing too. Once in a while the wreckage is interrupted by short outbursts of easy listening muzak and acoustic guitar arpeggios, but "How much noise can we make? (Let's find out)" is totally self-explanatory –– pump up the volume at your own risk –– and the initial riff of "Nihilist ace blues for time travel" begins a journey to the centre of the spin cycle of a demented washing machine full of chattering chipmunks. It's lively, funny and full of great ideas. I'll bet Maja's neighbours loved it too.(MR)
from: Paris Transatlantic, May 2005