a r t o . a r t i a n

musika txikien katalogoa / catálogo de musicas mínimas

1. .

   TOUCHING EXTREMES by Massimo Ricci

   The “revolutionary” power trio comprising Josetxo Anitua (vocals), Mattin (guitar & noises) and Inigo Eguillor (drums & percussion) is at home both with handmade explosions of venomous dissonance and sibylline whispers of silently mounting rage morphed into words that bath in desperate awareness and effective nihilism. The four messages delivered here constitute a continuity link to La Grieta’s “Hermana hostia” (see below) minus the bitter sarcasm and with a more “acid” disposition as far as the music is concerned. It’s incredible how Mattin sounds Mattin even with just a guitar; on the other hand, Anitua - who wrote all the lyrics - and Eguillor are an unlikely duo of companions, perfect for the low-budget blasphemy of this venture and gifted with a thoroughly uncontrollable anarchic spirit which can almost be smelled. “Reminder of a precious life” is sonic dust which refuses to be swept away.
2. .

   Z-GUN

   “I’m destroyed. Not dead cuz I’m destroyed” are the words that open this 30+ minute 4-song CD. As nihilistic as those words read, the “songs” here are even more so. With guitar scrapes, feedback, silence, whispers, screaming, abstract drumming, hypnotic beats, and some wheezing Grieta, Mattin (of Billy Bao among other things), and Inigo Eguilor fuck with space and try to destroy sound. I felt challenged and impatient my first listen through. I was a bit more generous the second time around, and started to appreciate the wreckage of Grieta and pals on listen number three. At first I was trying to find a center to the songs. Impossible, as Reminder… has no skeleton. However it does have a skin, a very pliant hide, one that is as elastic as it is shape shifting. Not for the meek.
3. .

   VITAL WEEKLY by Frans de Waard

   Whatever the relation is of La Grieta with Josetxo Grieto, I don’t know, but it lists Josetxo Anitua on vocals and lyrics, Mattin on guitar and noises and Inigo Eguillor on drums and percussion. This is a like the La Grieta work, except that its heavier and more related to free rock versus improvisation. Recorded with much distortion, both during the playing and probably some added afterwards, this is a more powerful work than the La Grieta release. Quite intense and furious.
4. .

   BAGATELLEN by Brian Olewnick

   “Reminder of a Precious Life” isn’t entirely dissimilar, though with just four tracks the music wanders a bit closer to the longer cuts from “Hermano Hostia”. Again, I get a little bit of a sense of, if not DNA specifically, the sort of climate that existed in the late 70s-early 80s when some strains of punk began to mix with free jazz and improv elements. Eguillor’s drums do tend to keep to rhythms, fragmented though they may be and Anitua’s vocals usually lie somewhere on a continuum from Lindsay to, oh, Yamatsuka Eye. It’s really Mattin’s guitar and other noises that fill out the songs, providing what grist there is to be had. That said, the more lugubrious pacing in this set wears thin after a bit, reaching a low point on “Precious life #1”, where the repeated refrain, “even when the sun goes down”, is endlessly either warbled mock-falsetto or gargled, sounding somewhat like what I’d expect from the unearthly spawn of Diamanda Galas and Tiny Tim. The final track picks things up a bit with a good, steady throb and insistent beat but a little late. Of the two reviewed here, I’ll take the freebie.
5. .

   FOXY DIGITALIS by Francois Hubert
   A rapid glance at the cover photograph may already give us an idea of the energy behind this recording – though it doesn’t tell us much about the music. The black and white picture shows a man standing at the corner of a street, his body fully-stretched as he’s fighting a group of state policemen who seems to retreat under his attack… Mattin’s “anti-copyright” motto can be read at the upper left corner of the picture which seems to be taken from the Paris riots of May 1968 – the title “Reminder of a Precious Life” is thus particularly fitting.

   Josetxo Grieta is actually a trio that comprises Josetxo Anitua on vocals (also a member of Cancer Moon), Mattin on guitar (and various assorted noises) and Inigo Eguillor on drums. And their music is as much in-your-face as you can get – full of half-whispered/ vociferated words, distorted guitars/ sounds and free drumming.

   Although there are undeniable affinities with the free punk New York scene from the late 1970s, the music of Josetxo Grieta is so unpredictable that it is difficult to describe it using mere references. There are several dynamics at work here. Sure, the rawness of the recording partly comes from the fact that it was all recorded live. Yet, the presence of Anitua seems to have been particularly essential in shifting the music towards a more improv-oriented/ experimental terrain.

   Actually, Anitua’s post-production further blurs the stylistic edges and contributes in giving a unique flavour to the whole thing. Free-punk assaults (along with Anitua’s versatile screams and moans) can either be hi-jacked by dub effects (“Reminder – Dreader Than Dread”) or give way to pure electro-acoustic manipulations which very often border on the near-silent (especially on the epic “Precious Life#1”): “Precious life we’re living, even when the sun goes down. Birds keep flying, all nite long”, Anitua whispers on and on, in his slightly distorted high-pitched voice.

   Consequently, the amount of tension that can be heard on the final track (“Precious Number To Life”) becomes almost unbearable: from the barely-heard brushes to the slightly-saturated guitar lines, it rapidly builds up to create a highly propulsive, yet dislocated pattern that is all the more intense as it obliterates all the sounds around you. NO STYLE, NO RESOLUTION, JUST CONFLICTING COLORS AND SOUNDS… the music seems to scream in a near-silent way.

   Though it took me a little while to fully get it, I now love this music for what it has to offer, nothing less, nothing more. And if you think this might well be your cup of tea, you should definitely check it out for yourself: “Beware, I’m destroyed, not dead cuz I’m destroyed…”

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