Search - Mnemonists :: Gyromancy

Still A Revolution

Robert Carlberg | Seattle | 01/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Mnemonists were a collective of visual- and sound-artists from Fort Collins, CO. They released six LPs back in the '80s full of twisted instrumental textures seen in a funhouse mirror. They were the American This Heat, the rock AMM, the art-house Dada AntiMusic. Normal instruments were rarely in evidence -- mostly their scree was an unidentifiable wail of pure noise.



But they weren't mindless. They weren't hard core. Their noise had space around it, and context, and some sections presented surprising calm and beauty.



It was a different way to look at music, a whole different definition of what "music" was. Organized Sound like Tod Dockstader yes, but using 1980s technology and aesthetics instead of IRCAM and Columbia-Princeton. "Highly evolved noise" as my fellow reviewer Lord Chimp put it.



Mnemonists eventually boiled down to Biota -- somewhat less experimental, more focussed -- and I believe all of Biota's seven LPs have seen reissue on CD through Recommended Records.



Sadly, Mnemonists have not been treated so well. What we have are two CDs of their collection, "Horde" and the present one, both sounding as revolutionary today as they did back in the day.



Is that because the world has yet to catch up, or because Fort Collins was not of this earth? It's for the listener to decide."