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HR087 - Hands To - Scrine - C60 — 1988
Picture
​Side A:

Whag
Milpic
Sethube
Tind
Thraal
Plathers
Firad
Side B:

Sinc
Scrine
Mastic
Biasis 2
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
 
Hands To is one of many projects from the prolific American sound artist, Jeph Jerman. Scrine is a banquet of abstract, textural, environmental and tape slice ‘n’ dice constructions. Experimental audio sculptures of this nature are always fun, as I can let my imagination and the imagery run wild. There are 11 tracks on this 60-minute set.
 
The set opens with textural rumbling, scratching and dragging, like a mouse trapped on a wheel and screeching in fear as a storm blows through, abetted by radio static morphed with Geiger counter crackle. Later we hear what struck me as sounding like Derek Bailey on a choppity-chop tape spliced guitar run, followed by manically over-the-top garbled tape fun, like a chipmunk invasion at an aviary and the buzz of their bodies as they hit an electric defense barrier.
 
I suspect environmental sounds were used prominently throughout the set, but they are more overt on ‘Tind’. It’s like being in a train yard, with the screech and grind of the wheels and the cars bumping as the train gradually gains momentum. It also sounds like a drunken horn ensemble jamming along with the train. ‘Plathers’ is like gliding bumpily across a wave-sweeping lake of sandpaper. ‘Firad’ is the quietest, most stripped-down minimal track yet, consisting of a distorted, lightly pulsating ambient wave. Eventually the volume amps up a bit and it starts to sound like we may be back in the train yard, only meditating on its sounds from a distance.
 
Side B opens with a parade of stilted carnival jingle, B-movie jungle music, and machine shop clatter, followed by frantic layers of scraping, like a washboard duo amidst an Industrial farm vibe. The last two tracks of the set are the most aggressively noisy. ‘Mastic’ is a steamroller assault of textured rumbling, scraping, screwball tape screeches, and voices. And, finally, ‘Biasis 2’ is equally intense, being 16-minutes of feeling like I was on a boat caught in a storm, fighting to keep the wildly flapping sails from being torn off their masts. Overall, I like the way Jerman balances noise, ambience, and tape manipulated effects to create coarse yet flowing sonic assemblages.
homemade audio folk art by Hal McGee and friends 1981-2022
  • HalTapes Home
  • Indianapolis 1981-88
  • Contact
  • Walls Of Genius
  • Jay T. Yamamoto
  • Girls On Fire
  • Harsh Reality Music
    • HR107 If Bwana Godfather Revue