REVIEWS

Andrew Liles
Black Sea

Beta-lactam Ring Records

Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

The sixth entry in The Vortex Vault, Andrew Liles' collection of random pieces and outtakes, Black Sea sticks mainly to dark, minimalist soundscapes drawing on various classical traditions. "Anhedonia" opens things with an extensive creepy meditation, starting off with the cold reverberations of mournful choir singing, but then moves into a surrealist spoken-word piece, with a man teaching a child to memorize by repetition such evocative yet bizarre phrases as "These are not angels, these are hovering flies" and "We are alone with Walnut Mary." It's at once nonsensical and completely chilling. "Olisbos (Introduced Instruments into the Belly of Another)" and "Padavona (The Long Running Dispute Over the D.O.B. of R.J.D.)" are each instrumental snippets barely longer than their titles, the first built around the scraping gypsy violin of Annie Kerr and the second centering on a moody piano phrase. Finishing things up is the title piece, presented in three parts in descending order. "Black Sea, Part III (A Return to the Bottom of the Ocean)" is dark ambient, crafted of studio-manipulated choir pads, their attack and decay lengthened extensively and drenched in sustain. With its tidal washes of soft fuzz, it's like a less ghostly take on Salt Marie Celeste by Nurse With Wound, with whom Liles is a frequent collaborator and live performer. "Black Sea, Part II (Danny Buoy)" is more dissonant and industrial, with lots of slow rumbles and metal scrapes, though it eventually adds piano and a reprise of Kerr's violins. Then, is if to call the quiet avant-garde classical of the rest of the album into question, "Black Sea, Part I (Semen, Salt, Sweat, Blood, Semen)" bursts forth from waves breaking softly upon a sandy beach into a noisy grind of instrumental garage rock, overloaded and overdriven. It's more like a Black Sabbath outtake than anything else on Black Sea, but it's also a fine example of what makes Liles such an intriguing noise artist. You can't ever rely on what he's done in the past as a predictor of what he might do in the future. That would be a curse if he was playing pop music, but it's a blessing for fans of the weird.