HR052 - ITN/Mental Anguish — Force Of Waves C60 — 1987
|
Side A:
Metabolik Disturbance Side B: Force Of Waves Time-Displacement All instruments: Jeff Central & Chris Phinney |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Force Of Waves is the second collaboration between Jeff ‘Central’ Chenault and Chris ‘Mental Anguish’ Phinney, the first being Alternative Communication Through Autonomic Overdubbing (HR027).
Side A is taken up by the epic ‘Metabolik Disturbance’. It’s all high powered action right out of the chute, with sonic scenery that brings to mind being the lone starfarer in the engine room bowels of a massive spacecraft. All the pulsations and oscillations sound like machinery. But soon loads of additional layers are added on… oddball swirls, buzzes and shooting star whistles. It’s like a 50s sci-fi flick effects soundtrack to utter mayhem in space. Eventually it all settles into an ongoing and continually evolving theme of incessant wave after wave of machinery running at full force and cosmic storm of every deadly weather pattern imaginable.
About halfway through a rhythmic pattern kicks in that injects a mechanic groove, almost like an army of clattering clocks and metronomes, accompanied by a squawking and playfully soaring synth line. It sounds somehow… musical. Action packed from beginning to end and lots of interesting variety.
Side B kicks off with the title track, ‘Force Of Waves’. We’re treated to lots of freaky space effects, but this is a more somber and somewhat abstract affair, blending hauntingly hallucinatory synth melodies, high pitched tone waves, ambient surges, but also rickety tape manipulations and an efx’d, faintly discernible voice narration that continues throughout at various volume levels. I like the effect that is both hypnotic and eyes wide open jarring.
‘Time-Displacement’ seems to pick up where ‘Force Of Waves’ left off, as if the difference were a brief intermission. But wait… a nifty kind of spaced out robotic tribal groove kicks in, setting a beat and propelling the more experimental static waves, machinery, soundscapes, and the ongoing narration. It starts off more sedate than Side A, but the mood gets increasingly intense, chaotic, and spooky. It’s a more challenging listen as there are a head spinning array of wildly contrasting components that Jeff and Chris blend together in interesting ways.
INTERVIEW with Jeff Chenault and Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: How did you guys work this one? One sent sounds to the other who added his parts and mixed it?
Chris Phinney (CP): Jeff sent me the files for the first collaboration, Alternative Communication Through Autonomic Overdubbing. I sent him the files for Force Of Waves. He did the mix down.
JK: ‘Metabolik Disturbance’, the track that takes up all of Side A, there are LOTS of moving parts on that monster! Jeff did the mix so he might have more to say, but is all this just a combination of individual components from each of you, or did Jeff just get the drift of the music that was sent, added something thematically similar and mixed it down?
CP: I recorded the whole piece, 27 minutes of material using… I had a acquired more gear by that time. I was using the Korg Poly-800, the ARP Axxe, and the Moog Prodigy that I sold, like a dumb ass. And I sold my ARP Axxe, which was broken. And I used the Moog Rogue as well. Jeff added whatever gear he had. He was working with a lot of broken gear. We’ve all always worked with broken gear of some sort. A key broken off here and there (laughs).
Jeff Chenault (JC): Chris sent me his collaboration tracks and I played my part right along with it and recorded it straight to cassette. No overdubbing at all. Everything was recorded and mixed live in one take. It actually sounds like we are playing together and not something that was recorded in two different cities at two different times. I think that’s why I like this recording so much. Everything seems to blend into each other making it difficult sometimes to make out who’s playing what!
JK: So you sent your recording to Jeff and he finished it. Were you surprised when you heard the finished music? Was it dramatically different? How did it sound to you as the one who sent it on to Jeff to finish? The point of my question is I’m interested in digging into collaboration between artists.
CP: I thought it sounded a lot better than our first collaboration. He added a lot of effects, noises, and he added the rhythm as well.
JC: The real trick to being a good collaborator is listening to the music you are working with. Really listen. Chris’s pre-tapes were amazing and I wanted to make it sound like we were actually playing together. My equipment at the time was very minimal. I had a Roland TR-505, a Moog Satellite, a Roland SDE-1000 digital delay, a Casio SK-5, and a handful of broken equipment.
JK: The voice narration on all of Side B… I’m guessing that’s some sample? I couldn’t make it out. Maybe some preacher… Do you remember what it was?
CP: I can’t remember, I think Jeff put it in there. We used to use a lot of preacher shit on our recordings. People bitchin’ and raising hell about stuff like that. I used to use a lot of tapes from India and Indonesia.
JC: I have no idea what or where that narration came from on Side B. I thought Chris did it!! LOL!!! I think Chris did the preacher shit on Side B as well. I didn’t have too many pre-tapes back then but I may have used some things. I used to speed up and slow down tapes down with my TEAC reel as well. Keep in mind those days were very heavy drug days for me so it’s really hard to remember what was going on.
JK: Actually both Side B tracks, other than the break, seem to follow a continually evolving theme. At least that's how it struck me as a listener. Was it really all separate or did you just break it up that way?
CP: It was intended to be two separate tracks. I think it was originally intended to be three separate tracks.
JC: I think the originals Chris sent had three tracks on it so I kept them that way and just added what I wanted to hear on top of it. I didn’t really think of them as themes. I just cranked everything up and went with the flow.
JK: One of the distinctions between the music on Side A and B is that Side B seems to have more experimental elements. It’s got the action heard on Metabolik Disturbance, but it’s also got a lot more contrasting components blended together. More noise, the voice samples and such.
CP: It’s got a little more ARP Axxe added to it, that probably explains it. It’s probably where you get some of the high pitched tones.
JC: There’s definitely a lot of stuff going on underneath the sound on Side B. There are a few surprise elements that seem to burst in like we are actually playing together. It makes me laugh when I hear it!
JK: I like the combination of ACTION and MOOD throughout the entire tape. I really enjoyed the whole set.
CP: I think it was a much better tape than the first one. We’d gotten more of a feel for how each other work.
JC: As a tape-collaboration, this one is one of my favorites. I love working with Chris and still do.
JK: You started answering one of my question earlier, but did you have any gear on this tape, a year later, that you didn’t have on Alternative Communication Through Autonomic Overdubbing?
CP: By now I’d had my reverb rack. Recording with Viktimized Karcass wore out my Ibanez analog delay.
JK: Let’s talk more about the ITN/HR co-releasing. I assume you went off and listed them in each of your own catalogs and traded with your respective network partners? Was there any coordination… like with promos or anything? Or was it as simple as you each released it and off you went?
CP: We just went off and did whatever we wanted with them (laughs). Jeff had different contacts and I had different contacts. And we both had some same contacts. But I don’t think we even doubled up on anybody.
JC: Yeah, we just added the tape to our cassette labels and moved on to the next project. These were extremely creative times for both of us.
JK: Finally, I see you contributed a shorted version of Force Of Waves to Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age compilation!
JC: I was so thrilled to be have been invited to participate in the Cassette Culture book. I sent three tracks by separate recording projects that I was involved with and they all made the cut. Yes, I’m a proud papa. I’m glad I made the inside of the book too so thank you much for that Jerry. It makes me feel like I really did something back in the day besides take massive amounts of drugs. Recording, collaborating and trading tapes with people all around the world was encouraging and therapeutic for me and a little recognition doesn’t hurt.
Force Of Waves is the second collaboration between Jeff ‘Central’ Chenault and Chris ‘Mental Anguish’ Phinney, the first being Alternative Communication Through Autonomic Overdubbing (HR027).
Side A is taken up by the epic ‘Metabolik Disturbance’. It’s all high powered action right out of the chute, with sonic scenery that brings to mind being the lone starfarer in the engine room bowels of a massive spacecraft. All the pulsations and oscillations sound like machinery. But soon loads of additional layers are added on… oddball swirls, buzzes and shooting star whistles. It’s like a 50s sci-fi flick effects soundtrack to utter mayhem in space. Eventually it all settles into an ongoing and continually evolving theme of incessant wave after wave of machinery running at full force and cosmic storm of every deadly weather pattern imaginable.
About halfway through a rhythmic pattern kicks in that injects a mechanic groove, almost like an army of clattering clocks and metronomes, accompanied by a squawking and playfully soaring synth line. It sounds somehow… musical. Action packed from beginning to end and lots of interesting variety.
Side B kicks off with the title track, ‘Force Of Waves’. We’re treated to lots of freaky space effects, but this is a more somber and somewhat abstract affair, blending hauntingly hallucinatory synth melodies, high pitched tone waves, ambient surges, but also rickety tape manipulations and an efx’d, faintly discernible voice narration that continues throughout at various volume levels. I like the effect that is both hypnotic and eyes wide open jarring.
‘Time-Displacement’ seems to pick up where ‘Force Of Waves’ left off, as if the difference were a brief intermission. But wait… a nifty kind of spaced out robotic tribal groove kicks in, setting a beat and propelling the more experimental static waves, machinery, soundscapes, and the ongoing narration. It starts off more sedate than Side A, but the mood gets increasingly intense, chaotic, and spooky. It’s a more challenging listen as there are a head spinning array of wildly contrasting components that Jeff and Chris blend together in interesting ways.
INTERVIEW with Jeff Chenault and Chris Phinney by Jerry Kranitz
JK: How did you guys work this one? One sent sounds to the other who added his parts and mixed it?
Chris Phinney (CP): Jeff sent me the files for the first collaboration, Alternative Communication Through Autonomic Overdubbing. I sent him the files for Force Of Waves. He did the mix down.
JK: ‘Metabolik Disturbance’, the track that takes up all of Side A, there are LOTS of moving parts on that monster! Jeff did the mix so he might have more to say, but is all this just a combination of individual components from each of you, or did Jeff just get the drift of the music that was sent, added something thematically similar and mixed it down?
CP: I recorded the whole piece, 27 minutes of material using… I had a acquired more gear by that time. I was using the Korg Poly-800, the ARP Axxe, and the Moog Prodigy that I sold, like a dumb ass. And I sold my ARP Axxe, which was broken. And I used the Moog Rogue as well. Jeff added whatever gear he had. He was working with a lot of broken gear. We’ve all always worked with broken gear of some sort. A key broken off here and there (laughs).
Jeff Chenault (JC): Chris sent me his collaboration tracks and I played my part right along with it and recorded it straight to cassette. No overdubbing at all. Everything was recorded and mixed live in one take. It actually sounds like we are playing together and not something that was recorded in two different cities at two different times. I think that’s why I like this recording so much. Everything seems to blend into each other making it difficult sometimes to make out who’s playing what!
JK: So you sent your recording to Jeff and he finished it. Were you surprised when you heard the finished music? Was it dramatically different? How did it sound to you as the one who sent it on to Jeff to finish? The point of my question is I’m interested in digging into collaboration between artists.
CP: I thought it sounded a lot better than our first collaboration. He added a lot of effects, noises, and he added the rhythm as well.
JC: The real trick to being a good collaborator is listening to the music you are working with. Really listen. Chris’s pre-tapes were amazing and I wanted to make it sound like we were actually playing together. My equipment at the time was very minimal. I had a Roland TR-505, a Moog Satellite, a Roland SDE-1000 digital delay, a Casio SK-5, and a handful of broken equipment.
JK: The voice narration on all of Side B… I’m guessing that’s some sample? I couldn’t make it out. Maybe some preacher… Do you remember what it was?
CP: I can’t remember, I think Jeff put it in there. We used to use a lot of preacher shit on our recordings. People bitchin’ and raising hell about stuff like that. I used to use a lot of tapes from India and Indonesia.
JC: I have no idea what or where that narration came from on Side B. I thought Chris did it!! LOL!!! I think Chris did the preacher shit on Side B as well. I didn’t have too many pre-tapes back then but I may have used some things. I used to speed up and slow down tapes down with my TEAC reel as well. Keep in mind those days were very heavy drug days for me so it’s really hard to remember what was going on.
JK: Actually both Side B tracks, other than the break, seem to follow a continually evolving theme. At least that's how it struck me as a listener. Was it really all separate or did you just break it up that way?
CP: It was intended to be two separate tracks. I think it was originally intended to be three separate tracks.
JC: I think the originals Chris sent had three tracks on it so I kept them that way and just added what I wanted to hear on top of it. I didn’t really think of them as themes. I just cranked everything up and went with the flow.
JK: One of the distinctions between the music on Side A and B is that Side B seems to have more experimental elements. It’s got the action heard on Metabolik Disturbance, but it’s also got a lot more contrasting components blended together. More noise, the voice samples and such.
CP: It’s got a little more ARP Axxe added to it, that probably explains it. It’s probably where you get some of the high pitched tones.
JC: There’s definitely a lot of stuff going on underneath the sound on Side B. There are a few surprise elements that seem to burst in like we are actually playing together. It makes me laugh when I hear it!
JK: I like the combination of ACTION and MOOD throughout the entire tape. I really enjoyed the whole set.
CP: I think it was a much better tape than the first one. We’d gotten more of a feel for how each other work.
JC: As a tape-collaboration, this one is one of my favorites. I love working with Chris and still do.
JK: You started answering one of my question earlier, but did you have any gear on this tape, a year later, that you didn’t have on Alternative Communication Through Autonomic Overdubbing?
CP: By now I’d had my reverb rack. Recording with Viktimized Karcass wore out my Ibanez analog delay.
JK: Let’s talk more about the ITN/HR co-releasing. I assume you went off and listed them in each of your own catalogs and traded with your respective network partners? Was there any coordination… like with promos or anything? Or was it as simple as you each released it and off you went?
CP: We just went off and did whatever we wanted with them (laughs). Jeff had different contacts and I had different contacts. And we both had some same contacts. But I don’t think we even doubled up on anybody.
JC: Yeah, we just added the tape to our cassette labels and moved on to the next project. These were extremely creative times for both of us.
JK: Finally, I see you contributed a shorted version of Force Of Waves to Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age compilation!
JC: I was so thrilled to be have been invited to participate in the Cassette Culture book. I sent three tracks by separate recording projects that I was involved with and they all made the cut. Yes, I’m a proud papa. I’m glad I made the inside of the book too so thank you much for that Jerry. It makes me feel like I really did something back in the day besides take massive amounts of drugs. Recording, collaborating and trading tapes with people all around the world was encouraging and therapeutic for me and a little recognition doesn’t hurt.