HR036 - Mental Anguish — Bloodbath — C60 — 1986
All Instruments: Chris Phinney
This tape dedicated to the memory of Donald Vance Manning & R.A. (Trooper) Phinney |
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REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
The Bloodbath title notwithstanding, Chris Phinney dispenses with the lyrical rage of the previous two Mental Anguish cassette albums for a more sound exploratory vibe. Side A opens with ‘High Road’, which consists of floating soundscape/drone space electronica wrapped in a tension laden noise casing. I like how the anxiety level goes up, up, UP as the pieces develops. ‘Been A Long Time, Vance’ follows and is different. It starts off as a moaning and droning dreamy tune that is melodically and rhythmically perplexing in its surreal disjointedness. To make things even more wigged out, Chris retains this theme while adding pulses, waves, and blasts of noise, creating a nicely whacked out mutation of peacefully melodic and edgily tense contrasts. Next we’re at the Industrial/New Wave jamboree on ‘10-4 Trooper’, with its choppy dance beat and creatively disordered glom of keyboard parts. With each new album Chris is getting increasingly adept at mixing multiple parts to produce some fairly complex and totally psychedelic compositions.
All of Side B is very sound exploratory and really plays like an entire set. ‘Blood Of Christ’ is a sound exploration with vocals. We’ve got spaced out howls, cascades of bubbling oscillations that vary in their velocity from slow to frantic, ear piercing waves, multiple layers of soundscapes, tinkling bits of melody, and efx’d yelling spoken vocals (that I can’t make out). ‘Skull Crusher’ is another sound trip that combines dense industrial/jungle rhythms, squeaky toy, assorted effects, and soaring waves of what sound like a combination of speed drill and electronic space kazoo. I like the moody melting pot of whimsy, meditation, and intensity. Finally, ‘Brutality Protest’ is a symphony of cosmically noisy, unfurling carpets of soundscapes, drones, oscillations, and a bevy of other spaced out bleeps and blurps.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): Bloodbath…
Chris Phinney (CP): That’s one of my favorite tapes. It’s very noisy and dedicated to my dad, R.A. ‘Trooper’ Phinney. I know you saw the word ‘Trooper’ in the credits.
JK: Yes, it says “This tape is dedicated to the memory of Donald Vance Manning and R.A. (Trooper) Phinney.”
CP: Donald Vance Manning was my best friend who had died in a motorcycle wreck. I dedicated it to him but most of it is dedicated to my dad. There was a lot of twisting knobs and changing styles from Sick Of This And That and Crying Shame. Bloodbath is a lot noisier. Changing the EQ, twisting it all around, changing the effects around all the time, and making it a sound tape piece dedicated to my father and Van.
JK: It opens with ‘High Road’, which I described as “Floating soundscape/drone space electronica wrapped in a tension laden noise casing. The anxiety level goes up, up, UP as the pieces develops.” I really like the way you develop that track.
CP: Getting more and more crazy (laughs).
JK: But then the next track, ‘Been A Long Time, Vance’, is different. It starts off as a moaning and droning dreamy tune, but there’s melody and rhythm, and you retain this theme while adding pulses, waves, and blasts of noise. And I finish my review description saying it’s “A nicely whacked out mutation of peacefully melodic and edgily tense contrasts.” So you’ve got the noise, but a lot of different moods going on.
CP: Yeah, you’ve got sad moods. He’d been dead a long time, which is why I called it ‘Been A Long Time, Vance’. It’s dedicated to him. You’d hear some of the moods in the keys… they would change because of the fact that he got run over by a mail truck. The guy did a U turn and ran him over. He ended up dying in the hospital, bled to death internally.
JK: But you paid homage to him with some pretty cool music. And then the next song which wraps up Side A, ‘10-4 Trooper’, that’s dedicated to your dad?
CP: Yeah, because he was always on the CB radio. ‘Trooper’ was his handle. He was always on there talking to truckers.
JK: The music is pretty cool. I described it as being at “the Industrial/New Wave jamboree, with its choppy dance beat and creatively disordered glom of keyboard parts.” And I also added how it struck me as I was listening to the tape that “With each new album Chris is getting increasingly adept at mixing multiple parts to produce some fairly complex and totally psychedelic compositions.” So it definitely sounds like your music is getting more complex at this point.
CP: It was. I started changing a whole lot of things. A lot of knob twisting and things changing real fast. Pedals changing real fast, samples going in real fast, delay where I’d stop and put something in, whatever noise I wanted to put in, stop it and use it. And on the recorder itself I would twist the EQ buttons and change those to get some of the swirly atmospheric sounds, like when you hear stuff going up and down, high pitch low pitch. You would hear the high pitch, you would hear the low pitch. You would hear the whoosh and stuff like that. But Bloodbath is one of my favorite Mental Anguish tapes. It’s the style I wanted to change to. I wanted something totally different. I didn’t want a bunch of twiddling keys and stuff like that. I wanted a grinding, classic industrial sound. And I think I achieved that. And I got better feedback from friends I traded with.
JK: There’s three different tracks on Side B but all of them are very sound exploratory. All of Side B feels like an album on its own.
CP: Right. It was all done in the exact same way. This tape was meant to get away from the styles that I had been doing. I wanted a totally different style on this tape. Dave Prescott said Bloodbath was one of his favorites tapes he had heard by me.
JK: Well it blew me away coming hot on the heels of Crying Shame. Real different. The cover image looks like a bunch of cops or soldiers in riot gear.
CP: There was a riot somewhere and the cops got out their shields and batons to beat the shit out of somebody. It was just a clipping out of some magazine or newspaper.
The Bloodbath title notwithstanding, Chris Phinney dispenses with the lyrical rage of the previous two Mental Anguish cassette albums for a more sound exploratory vibe. Side A opens with ‘High Road’, which consists of floating soundscape/drone space electronica wrapped in a tension laden noise casing. I like how the anxiety level goes up, up, UP as the pieces develops. ‘Been A Long Time, Vance’ follows and is different. It starts off as a moaning and droning dreamy tune that is melodically and rhythmically perplexing in its surreal disjointedness. To make things even more wigged out, Chris retains this theme while adding pulses, waves, and blasts of noise, creating a nicely whacked out mutation of peacefully melodic and edgily tense contrasts. Next we’re at the Industrial/New Wave jamboree on ‘10-4 Trooper’, with its choppy dance beat and creatively disordered glom of keyboard parts. With each new album Chris is getting increasingly adept at mixing multiple parts to produce some fairly complex and totally psychedelic compositions.
All of Side B is very sound exploratory and really plays like an entire set. ‘Blood Of Christ’ is a sound exploration with vocals. We’ve got spaced out howls, cascades of bubbling oscillations that vary in their velocity from slow to frantic, ear piercing waves, multiple layers of soundscapes, tinkling bits of melody, and efx’d yelling spoken vocals (that I can’t make out). ‘Skull Crusher’ is another sound trip that combines dense industrial/jungle rhythms, squeaky toy, assorted effects, and soaring waves of what sound like a combination of speed drill and electronic space kazoo. I like the moody melting pot of whimsy, meditation, and intensity. Finally, ‘Brutality Protest’ is a symphony of cosmically noisy, unfurling carpets of soundscapes, drones, oscillations, and a bevy of other spaced out bleeps and blurps.
INTERVIEW with Chris Phinney by Kranitz
Jerry Kranitz (JK): Bloodbath…
Chris Phinney (CP): That’s one of my favorite tapes. It’s very noisy and dedicated to my dad, R.A. ‘Trooper’ Phinney. I know you saw the word ‘Trooper’ in the credits.
JK: Yes, it says “This tape is dedicated to the memory of Donald Vance Manning and R.A. (Trooper) Phinney.”
CP: Donald Vance Manning was my best friend who had died in a motorcycle wreck. I dedicated it to him but most of it is dedicated to my dad. There was a lot of twisting knobs and changing styles from Sick Of This And That and Crying Shame. Bloodbath is a lot noisier. Changing the EQ, twisting it all around, changing the effects around all the time, and making it a sound tape piece dedicated to my father and Van.
JK: It opens with ‘High Road’, which I described as “Floating soundscape/drone space electronica wrapped in a tension laden noise casing. The anxiety level goes up, up, UP as the pieces develops.” I really like the way you develop that track.
CP: Getting more and more crazy (laughs).
JK: But then the next track, ‘Been A Long Time, Vance’, is different. It starts off as a moaning and droning dreamy tune, but there’s melody and rhythm, and you retain this theme while adding pulses, waves, and blasts of noise. And I finish my review description saying it’s “A nicely whacked out mutation of peacefully melodic and edgily tense contrasts.” So you’ve got the noise, but a lot of different moods going on.
CP: Yeah, you’ve got sad moods. He’d been dead a long time, which is why I called it ‘Been A Long Time, Vance’. It’s dedicated to him. You’d hear some of the moods in the keys… they would change because of the fact that he got run over by a mail truck. The guy did a U turn and ran him over. He ended up dying in the hospital, bled to death internally.
JK: But you paid homage to him with some pretty cool music. And then the next song which wraps up Side A, ‘10-4 Trooper’, that’s dedicated to your dad?
CP: Yeah, because he was always on the CB radio. ‘Trooper’ was his handle. He was always on there talking to truckers.
JK: The music is pretty cool. I described it as being at “the Industrial/New Wave jamboree, with its choppy dance beat and creatively disordered glom of keyboard parts.” And I also added how it struck me as I was listening to the tape that “With each new album Chris is getting increasingly adept at mixing multiple parts to produce some fairly complex and totally psychedelic compositions.” So it definitely sounds like your music is getting more complex at this point.
CP: It was. I started changing a whole lot of things. A lot of knob twisting and things changing real fast. Pedals changing real fast, samples going in real fast, delay where I’d stop and put something in, whatever noise I wanted to put in, stop it and use it. And on the recorder itself I would twist the EQ buttons and change those to get some of the swirly atmospheric sounds, like when you hear stuff going up and down, high pitch low pitch. You would hear the high pitch, you would hear the low pitch. You would hear the whoosh and stuff like that. But Bloodbath is one of my favorite Mental Anguish tapes. It’s the style I wanted to change to. I wanted something totally different. I didn’t want a bunch of twiddling keys and stuff like that. I wanted a grinding, classic industrial sound. And I think I achieved that. And I got better feedback from friends I traded with.
JK: There’s three different tracks on Side B but all of them are very sound exploratory. All of Side B feels like an album on its own.
CP: Right. It was all done in the exact same way. This tape was meant to get away from the styles that I had been doing. I wanted a totally different style on this tape. Dave Prescott said Bloodbath was one of his favorites tapes he had heard by me.
JK: Well it blew me away coming hot on the heels of Crying Shame. Real different. The cover image looks like a bunch of cops or soldiers in riot gear.
CP: There was a riot somewhere and the cops got out their shields and batons to beat the shit out of somebody. It was just a clipping out of some magazine or newspaper.