Search - Steve Fisk :: Over & Thru the Night

Torrid and tawdry

Geofredo | Montreal | 06/06/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My first encounter with Fisk was off a sampler of (grind teeth here) "ambient" artists released by Astralwerks in the early 90's. It was actually a good roster of material, including tracks by Aphex Twin and Pete Namlook... anyway, there was a piece by Fisk called "express God" on it which stunned me at the time... it was anything but gentle, easy listening. Nevertheless the track had a compelling, not to mention unique, method of telling a tale using sound and sampled dialogue. "Over and thru the night" is a collection of his material from the 80's which demonstrated this purposeful blend of pop-culture references with pioneering (though primitive now)editing techniques. Tracks such as "Topeka Hello" access a giddy blend of hedonism and its sinister consequences via disco samples and a senseless test broadcast voice reading... that's what I heard anyway. "Doll House" is a devastating satire of connubial bliss versus the reality of an indifferent world, and manages both to amuse and disturb. It epitomizes the strength of Steve Fisk's vision which is quite a bit broader than most... His is an adult world, yet one in which primitive fears and illusions dominate. But most important, he keeps us entertained with hammy, tawdry , and overwrought dialogue and schtick, in a manner that all but capsizes the category of post-modernism. Or something like that."