Name: Leonardas MAROZAS aka LEVAS
Nationality: Lithuanian
On the front line: since 2009
Activities: inter alia: solo act: POGROM; bands: BUDRŪS and VOLKSMORG; owner of the Terror label and magazine.
Contact: http://www.terror.lt
My ‘date’ receives anonymous 6 compositions picked by me at random. He/She is supposed to discuss their artistic merits, including strengths and weaknesses of applied means of bruitist expression, structure and composing techniques.
1. NKVD P.T.I. (Version)
from “Lovers Of Libra” (Audiofile Tapes 1989) cassette
Right away it sets a very nice mood with the very first seconds of hiss of a tape and lo-fi recordings from outer space. Nice couple layers of synth sounds and buzzing static that might be intentional or not. It has nice outsiderish feeling with some weird and quite annoying moments like playing the spectrum of notes and some quacks. The track does not go further from quite primitive and slightly chaotic experimental/avantgarde sound area. Spoken word adds yet another dimension to the track and the totality makes me curious and wanting for more to check. It seems that other tracks in the album should be faster, more chaotic and more energetic while this one is like a beginning of bad trip.
2. HANATARASH Ultra Cocker
from “1” (Alchemy Records 1985) LP
Now this one is very good. It has such a rare, but great combination of sort of ethnic/tribal singing and very nicely done primitive and fierce noise. These two substances are so different and oppose each other, but at the same time they construct such a weird and complete image of the track that it seems as if you’d be tasting sweet herring or sour-sweet sauce for the first time. Though the track does not develop too much and goes more or less in one straight line, you never loose attention while listening to it. Images of war, sand, sacred places and overall religious fanatism seem so suitable for this track. It is hypnotizing and when the chant ends and only noise is left, you yourself are left hung somewhere in-between spaces. I’d say fantastic!
3. A HANDFUL OF DUST Come, Breathe Upon These Slain, That They May Live
from “Concord” (Twisted Village 1993) LP
This is interesting. The sound of violin, bells, spoken or sampled word, exploring religious themes and that’s mostly it. I’d say it has something to do with mixing Steven Stapleton, David Tibet and Andrew McKenzie in one picture or Nurse With Wound-like experiments with Current 93 theme and calm voice, joining the party a little later + The Hafler Trio overall atmosphere and slightly theatrical feeling. Sounds are minimal and while not understanding correctly all words that are being spoken because of distortion or overlapping layers of sound, it is not easy to get to the very core of the track. Slightly hysterical violin abuse through all the track, bells and drum plates adds very nice feeling to the overall picture of this and a slight old-schoolish nostalgia is brought in because it’s so rare that I listen to such sounds nowadays.
4. JUNKO Untitled
from “Sleeping Beauty” (Élevage De Poussière 2002) LP
Well, this is the woman screaming for almost 15 minutes. Perhaps it could be Junko, but who knows. Her screams are reversed and this goes for the whole time. So do you listen to something nice? Well, how to say. It’s not “nice” in the usual way, but after some time you get that soothing feeling, mixing woman’s voice with whiskey and start enjoying it. So do you listen to something interesting? I doubt that too. Because there is nothing else, just the texture of reversed woman’s voice and that’s it. So do you listen to something conceptual? I think this is the case. Conceptualism starts when you can justify and excuse every action and every sound of yours. 1 minute of that would be enough to show something. 15 minutes is far more than I need.
5. FILTHY TURD Untitled
from “Why Don’t You Treat Me Right” (Verato Project 2007) 2 x CD-R
Ah after these screams this is the relief for my ears. Good, multilayered harsh noise with some junk abuse, feedbacks, dynamics and overall primitive excellence. This is the noise that you can just listen to and enjoy without questioning yourself “why am I listening to this. Am I trying to understand something? Am I really that stupid that I don’t understand this something?” I like how dense it is and how all the different layers of sound goes without nonsense hand in hand with each other. No samples, no relaxation, just intense drill of harsh noise from the beginning to the end. It’s just balancing on your comfort line and not surpassing it when you start thinking “now I should feel catharsis”, and not too far from that line when you think “meh”.
6. ZANOISECT Must We
from “Turnoise 2000 / 41 Through 74” (XV Parówek 2002) CD-R
This is the shortest track and after the previous one it just feels a little empty. It’s an ok track, it has some sort of loop, jumping through synth tones from the beginning to the end and various changing elements that go with it – some silent distorted synth lines, pulsating tones and so on, but the track is constructed in blocks of sound elements. Blocks are good, but they repeat themselves in such a short time and the overall picture of the track starts to become repetitive and quite monotonous. On the other hand the time – 2+ minutes is just right for this one. If it would be longer and constructed in the same way, it would be much worse. And of course this track would be much better if it would have been played before 5th track. Now the difference and contrast is far too big.
The Catcher in the Noise 