CARCRASHFACE - in denial

Richard Eames just asked me about Car Crash Face - one of my noisier collaborations.

we havent played for a while... our last 2 gigs were on the Invasion Day weekend 2004 - at the Anarchist Ball as part of Anarcon04, and the No Fly Zone benefit gig. we usually play at something during Artrage but we didnt this year... i'd say we'll be doing some thing somewhere soon one day! maybe at one of the upcoming indymedia screenings... [or perhaps at a new regular gig i'm hoping to start up in feb - Openmouth Dissent - more on that soon]

car crash face have a recording, which we released a while ago... in 2000 i think. we recorded with Dr Alien Smith at Bergerk Studio - i'm not sure if he has any copies left - its called: "Car Crash Face - There Is No Such thing As A Mistake (Sound Gallery) CDR" catalogue number: "BSG005". Mar Bucknell [fellow CCF noisician] and i were talking the other day about doing another recording soon.

anyway, so i did some googling. beware: car crash face is a dodgy thing to search the internet for! but heres some snips...

"Car Crash Face is more a band, with members who were previously in Magick Trousers. From what I understand a pretty heavy affair. Car Crash Face have four members who operate on a line of casio, toys, pc loops, guitar, moog. Their CDR release is full of weirdness playing, which however didn't make a consistent sound to me. Crazyness at it's best, but it never made any impression on me. (FdW)" found here

"Rising from the ashes of the infamous Magic Trousers, Car Crash Face combine Moog, Audio Mulch, Casios, Guitar, Toys and vocals to create an electronic based mish mash of sound collage and atmospherics. This is in true essence an electronic record, but the best kind, utilizing technolgy and analogue sound sources to deconstruct music and build it up again in new and refreshing ways. With a total of 15 tracks ranging from 10 minute epics to 1 minute bursts of weirdness, this CD sets in concrete the Car Crash Face sound. From: The Sound Gallery Series of Limited Edition Australian Experimental CDR's

the original - now chronically outta date CCF site

Car Crash Face Biography - CCF formed in 2000, the leftover sonic bile from perth, western australia's notorious performance poetry experimental noise-art band, the MAGICK TROUSERS. With the now-redundant legacy of the magick trousers behind them [banned from over 4 venues and hated by many], and only sonic remnants for a canvas, CCF attempt to defy the stifling structures of hegemonic music. Using moog, casio, radios, cds, computer-driven loops, toys, guitars and various found objects, CCF seek to find music in noise and noise in music. The Car Crash Face mission is clear: isolate, deconstruct, destroy the very essence of sonic meaning. Car Crash Face [anti-sonic noise-art] assembled their toys in march 2001and headed into Bergerk! Studios. working with Lux Mammoth/Bergerk! overlord, Dr Alien Smith, these nasty aural deconstructors have created an album's worth of noise gems, unfit for unsonic mothers.

the car crash gang consists of Allan Boyd - PCloops/guitar/shout, Mar Bucknell - casio/toys, Father Abe Dunovits - radios/noisetoys/shoutfeedback, Dr Jon Kirby - MOOG.

"This entire CD-R was recorded in two improvised takes, tweaking only the levels during the mixing process. Not bad, especially considering that the first track is more than 10 minutes of interesting experimental electronics with nice integration of samples and even some live instrumentation. The fact that four people were involved probably helped a lot as far as layering and structuring. Most of the other tracks are far shorter, though also less interesting to me because the instrumentation (guitar/bass) becomes more random and more noticeable. I'm not really fond of noisy music that dwells too highly on haphazardly executed stringed instrument performances, especially when the sound sources are easily identifiable as such.

When they integrate samples and loops, including beats, and let bizarre electronics take control while the guitar/bass fiddling sort of falls to the background (see "360 Degrees in Rehearsal (Owings)" it's far more effective. But I could do with tracks like "Mistake 6 (Reprise in A# Major)" altogether, as there's no real substance. Elsewhere the group displays the ability to create wonderful ambient drones with the bass as well as creating nice electronic layers, so I'm not sure why so many tracks are similar in their minimal, and basically boring delivery.

The CD-R comes packaged in a nice sleeve printed on semi-transparent orange paper with simple text and abstract images. "Support Piracy Copy Burn Distribute" is posted on the back cover, which I'm all for in cases like these. I seem to have the same general feeling about most of the Bergerk! releases that I've heard. All have promising elements, but I guess my personal tastes interfere as I'm not particularly fond of improvised recordings of this nature, so I'd rather hear them pick and choose their strengths and refine them in thoroughly constructed pieces." By Aversionline Zine

i like this one: an Italian Review here at the kathodike website...
especially when translated to english...

and apparently u can get a cd here:
www.kormplastics.nl

or just comment here or send me an email.
allanx--AT--indymedia--DOT--org

cheerio...
X_al