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www.freq.org.uk
Lloyd Dunn and Ralph Johnson have taken a different tack in their Public Works project from their contributions to The Tape-beatles over the years. They’re still at the cut-up game, still tilting at the untitled windows of the windmills of post-Modern culture, but with a focus that has shifted into production of beats and rhythms of more even temper, somewhat mellowed out even from the intense evisceration of political and social life in the Western world.
Numbers presents observations built upon observations of the undercurrents coursing through the digital world, wheezing loops, recursing anti-rhythms and melodies from various sources ancient, modern and ‘exotic’ left both relatively untouched and those which are propelled into the depths of sampling malleability. Voices from the electronic aether remark upon mundane matters and nature of reality, in passing or otherwise; but if Public Works have any answers, they’re not ramming them home here, being far more inclined to play tricks and place puzzles in the clear vinyl artifact itself. Those infamous Numbers Stations, or something similar, make a guest appearance among the mysterious self-referencing babel. The end result is an uncanny, impressionistic collage, choosing neither to present much explicitly for easy digestion, nor seeming entirely randomized and affectless either.
Antron S. Meister
de:bug
Public Works bilden ja bekanntlich eine Schnittmenge mit den Tape-beatles und auch sie beschäftigen sich mit dem Thema Audiocollage. Auf den beiden vorliegenden Stücken geht das sehr konzentriert und pointiert mit wenig Überlagerungen aber umso mehr Überrraschungen vonstatten und man fragt sich permanent, was hier eigentlich geht. Schnell stellt sich ein kontemplativer Zustand verschwommener Wahrnehmung ein, der durch das behutsame Tempo der Produktion unterstützt wird. Von überall her zusammengeklaubte Fragmente fügen sich zu einem Strom zusammen, in dem diffuses Geplänkel neben winzigen, leisen Countryfragmenten bestehen kann und Ryal Trux artige Loops ihren Platz neben japanischen Sprechpassagen finden. All das scheint einfach so herangeweht zu kommen und das soeben gehörte wahlweise zu ergänzen oder in Frage zu stellen, so dass sich bei jedem Hören einen andere Fokussierung offenbart. Die probaten Visuals liefert das durchsichtige Vinyl dieser 10", deren durch Rotation bedingtem Flackern man sich gelegentlich ja immer wieder gerne aussetzt. [pp]
[As everyone knows, Public Works intersect with the Tape-beatles and occupy themselves with audio collage as well. In the two pieces here, this is achieved in a very dense and pointed fashion with few overlays, but many surprising moments, so that one constantly has to ask what’s going on here. But soon, one ends up in a contemplative state of vague perception, supported by the mellow tempo of the production. Fragments taken from virtually everywhere build into a stream in which a fuzzy theme withstands tiny, low-volume fragments of country music and Ryal-Trux-like loops are placed next to passages of Japanese speech. All this seems as if it is been blown to us by a breeze, either supplying or questioning what we just heard, so that each listening reveal a different focus. The transparent vinyl of this 10" provides the apt visuals. The flicker produced by the rotation is an effect one likes to experience again and again. (trans. FC)]
Groove [DE]
Im obskuren Format einer durchsichtigen 9"-Schallplatte liefern uns Ralph Johnson und Lloyd Dunn von den plunderphonischen Tape-beatles hier als Public Works ein paar wohlgesetzte Samples und Geräusche zu den Themen Intuition und Wissen. Sie bauen auf eine entlegenere Kommunikationsmethode, auf Poesie, und erstellen trotz allem Collagen- und Cut-up-Fragmentarismus eine erstaunlich unhektische Musik, die an verfahrenen Semantiken rüttelt. [FG]
[Ralph Johnson and Lloyd Dunn of the plunderphonic group Tape-beatles, appearing here as Public Works, bring us a few well-chosen samples and sounds on the topics of intuition and knowledge, in the odd form of a transparent 9-inch vinyl disk. They rely on a more outlying (?) communication-method, on poetry, and, despite its being all collage and cut-up fragmentarianism, produce a surprisingly unhectic music, that hints at a long-lost semantics.]
wReck thiS meSS on Radio Patapoe 97.2 - Amsterdam [NL]
Adventures in UNsound: no. 143* > summer: [5a] "Numbers" on Elevator Bath clear vinyl says it is an extension of the Tape-beatles project. This is accomplished babel plunderphonics which places it in the same realm as John Oswald, Negativland and the Tape-beatles but they are perhaps more abstract, compositional and more accomplishedly musical than the others. You will be hearing more from and about this …
L’Entrepôt
Dit is voor Public Works de opvolger voor hun debuut Matter uit ’97.
Tussen deze en huidige release werkte de leden van Public Works, Ralph
Johnson en Lloyd Dunn, mee aan het Tape-beatles project (1999).
Numbers is een plaatje geworden waar een onplaatsbaar, ongrijpbaar sfeertje
op gecreëerd wordt. Met stemmen samples en koude, industrieel te noemen
percussie wordt deze vorm gegeven. Maar ook stukken opgebouwd rond een
etnische gitaar, logger stuk met repetitieve meer bas geluiden. De stemmen
zijn meestal oudere samples, met kinderen en vrouwen die een eclips ervaring
beschrijven, een pastoor die over het mysterie van de dood predikt en andere
thema’s. Elke kant van de plaat bevat een paar stukken (die echter wel niet als song
vernoemd zijn) zodat het goed beluisterbaar blijft. Speciaal plaatje.
[This is for Public Works the successor for their debut Matter (1997).
Between this and the new release the members of Public Work, Ralph Johnson
and Lloyd Dunn, participated in the Tape-beatles project (1999).
Numbers is a record where they have created a weird, spooky atmosphere. With
voice samples and cold, industrial alike percussion they created this
atmosphere. But some parts are build up around ethnic guitar or heavy
swelling sounds. The voices are mostly from older samples, with children and
women who talk about an eclipse experience, a priest who preach about death
and other nice themes.
Each side of the record contains a few pieces (not titled) so the keeps it
listenable. Special Record, it are more fragments or creating from
atmosphere than real songs.]
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