Music from the Film- Playfully Abrasive

ARTIST: Music from the Film
ALBUM: Playfully Abrasive
LABEL: Self-released
REVIEWER: Matthew J.
DATE: 5-3-08

Not actually a soundtrack but rather the name of a project, Music from the Film consists of Gary Young, a long-time participant in the cassette noise scene, and various friends, all banging away on such instruments as glockenspiel and ukulele, not to mention less conventional objects like children's toys. This CD is aptly titled; it's abrasive some of the time and playful all of the time, very much in keeping with the surrealistic approach to sound pioneered by such acts as Nurse With Wound, right down to the barnyard animal sounds that show up on "War Dance." While the excessive randomness and repetitious toy noises can make this a somewhat grueling listen, a surprising number of songs actually cohere around specific themes. In some cases, samples make this fairly easy, as on "Consume," which splices a pre-recorded sales call with bouncing spring percussion to make its point about consumerism, and "The Daily Commute," which adds traffic sounds to random drumming and low-fi guitar noise to replicate the nervewracking experience of being stuck on a crowded freeway, but other offerings are far more subtle. "Wistful," in particular, manages to conjure a sense of yearning with, of all things, the yowls of an irritated cat, layered with atonal strums and muffled whispers, and "Music in Paris" uses harmonicas and trumpet bleats alongside dripping water and metallic percussion to evoke street musicians of a European metropolis as heard from a distance and partially obscured by the day to day sounds of the city. That said, there are also moments of random lunacy and low comedy, like "Mom," an Oedipal joke set to banjos and grumbling. Fans of improvised noise with an impish bent will appreciate this one, and the relatively brief compositions make this a perfect album for sound collage aficionados with short attention spans.

Learn more about Music from the Film on MySpace at www.myspace.com/musicfromthefilm.