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Once again, the people at Love Earth Music have raised the bar for noise. Chopstick’s second release for the label is a powerful masterpiece that deserves attention, not only from the noise contingent, but from the modern classical and ambient electronic corners as well.
Overall, the album has the demeanor of Tod Dockstader‘s sound effect symphonies, as the four extended tracks seem to be connected movements of a longer piece. There’s also a low-end drone element that recalls the binaural beat highs of I-Doser. The opening title track blends the two with noise elements to create a soundscape that is an ominous, foreboding journey through the unknown physics of space. “The Women of Peckham” continues in the same vein, adding the electronic soundtracks of John Carpenter to the mix, until about halfway through, when an SPK-like beat comes in and transports everything beyond the restrictions of classification into a territory that is all of the above plus 8-bit. “White Dwarf” continues the Dockstader/Carpenter/I-Doser drone while retaining the essential elements of a classic noise piece, and “Dead Radar” serves as the fourth movement, a summation of the ideas presented as the culmination of the “symphony.”
It is quite a journey – the dark, dangerous path of a lone space traveler, the proverbial “Major Tom” who abandons his earthly home for the magnificent knowledge he will gain in his exploration of multidimensional space. It is a rewarding, unique experience, so abandon your earthly perceptions for something undefinable, beyond us all.
