If you’re expecting another discful of ultrarefined hiss’n’crackle electroacoustic improv, think again: this may start with amiable chatter between the musicians, and end a mere 28 minutes later with audience applause and a burst of laughter from Rowe, but in between comes a sonic minefield, cratered and littered with debris. The venomous mood is set nicely by an opening grab from Radio Canada International – talking heads nattering on about Iraq. Rowe lets them burble away for a few minutes, then singles out a half-intelligible fragment from the program for further treatment, repeating and successively deforming it until it’s a shapeless smear. Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” makes an appearance halfway through: someone turns up the dial; both musicians sit listening without comment for a solid minute, then let loose a terrifying onslaught, sounding for all the world like a bicycle chain dropped into a blender. It’s hopeless trying to figure out who’s doing what here, though Rowe (credited with “guitar, electronics”) seems to be responsible for the buzzsaw-encountering-sheet-metal racket and fastforward/rewind activity, while Beins (“percussion”) contributes everything from tingling bells to rusty playground-equipment shrieks. The results are a terrific earcleanser of an album, a salutary blast of spleen and perversity: it makes for a fine start to Erstwhile Records’ brand-new ErstLive series.

Nate Dorward

shorter version in Exclaim, February 2005