Better than I was expecting.
Robert P. Beveridge | Cleveland, OH | 03/19/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Bastard Noise, Analysis of Self-Destruction (Alien8, 2000)I have never been a fan of Bastard Noise's recorded works. They're not too bad at all live, but I always found the records to be somewhat annoying at best (and at worst, like their half of the Merzbow/BN split Voice Pie, absolutely unlistenable). But when a label as consistently high-quality as Alien8 drops a Bastard Noise bomb on us, I guess it's time to pull back and rethink that position.Could be a combination of me getting older or Bastard Noise getting better, but either way, Analysis of Self-Destruction is orders of magnitude more interesting than their earlier work. Not to say it's the best thing since sliced bread, but it least it has some points of reference for the listener, a little structure, and some sort of changes in frequency, pitch, tone, etc that are gradual. In other words, it all sounds more composed. There's still room for improv, but here's yet more evidence that improv over a structured base sounds a whole lot better than improv for its own sake (compare, for example, "Under Mother Earth's Skirt" with the tracks on Voice Pie).Even more interesting, they manage all this without changing the basics of the BN sound; the base noise is much higher than it is with most noise bands, the oscilloscope-like wavering is still all over the place (and it's still annoying, but not nearly as much), John Wiese throws in some guitar now and again or a handful of unintelligible vocals, and a mass of what-have-you sits in between it all. The whole thing is at least listenable, sometimes even getting good (the wry humor of a few bars of "Turkey in the Straw" finding their way into "Death Wish for the Dead," for example). Not bad, not bad. ***"
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1