As much as I enjoy clicks n cuts and similar glitch based difficult music, it has occurred to me that this style of sound could be considered a contemporary equivalent to progressive rock. It is almost by definition self-indulgent and for some folks likely just as hard to take seriously as Rick Wakeman’s ill fated “Myths and Legends of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table” on ice debacle. I’m not sure who prog-rock was actually for (before my time) but geeks could easily be accused of being an elitist demographic and therefore the genre directly analogous to the complaints that partially led to the birth of punk rock. Now while this has struck me from time to time, it certainly doesn’t stop me from enjoying collections such as this one from Kotra regardless of whether sets of blips and blats is something most folks do not want to hear sputtering out of their stereo. That said, “Dissilient” veers dangerously close to endurance test in some sections with out much accompanying catharsis to compensate for the occasional excesses of art for art’s sake.
This is more of an EP really since 34 minutes is only a full length album if you are AC/DC. The tracks are all named as mathematical offsets which is as good a choice as any for a series of sounds that taste like the end of a probe plugged into a function generator. While all of the sounds are digital in nature if not in actual execution, there is an analog type approach to the feedback and distortion appearing here which finds repetitive beeps and modem squawks getting wrapped up in themselves to the point of bumping their heads on the dynamic ceiling. This is not always pleasant and the first few minutes are likely to lead to removal of headphones or at least volume reduction unless you are completely deaf already. It is quite unique sounding it should be noted, just perched at a frequency akin to screaming babies in the seat beside you when stuck on a public bus in a traffic jam that spreads around you as far as the eyes can see.
Some rhythmic structures comparable to 8 bit beatbox appear mid disc and of course this is the most approachable section since the beats (if you can call them that, more like gating effects) help provide some momentum past the more nasal and shrill feedback bursts. There is also a wide variety of little bitty cutups that sound less like data files in a wave editor and more like a modem suddenly breaking into a solo. The kind of music that makes you yearn for an oscilloscope and data analyzer. At its best the varied trace can be quite captivating, like the smoke trails from a soldering iron or watching vials of blue fluid being mixed together.
I guess it is part of the point (call me a wimp if you must) but my main complaints here are to do with how the frequency spectrum falls out – it almost hurts to listen to this at any sort of volume at all. While that may sound all bad ass on (virtual) paper what this means is that to hear the overall recording at a true discernable level you would need to sport earplugs in your own freaking living room. Raucous cacophony is welcome in these here parts but unlike a release like Dustbreeders and Junko’s “Mommy Close The Door” which as their label suggests, “peels paint from the walls” this release does not offer enough fist in the air teeth grinding payback for its abuse of your cochlea. It is just too academic and stuffy most of the time which tilts the scales towards dry frustration instead of neuron driven arcing electricity. If the mastering had trimmed just a little from about 1kHz upwards this likely would be a glowing review because there are some very cool functions cavorting about the soundscape but it’s so damned nasal and sharp that I feel like I am chewing on tinfoil while suffering a flu headache as well as feeling like I am being forced to adjust the volume at gunpoint. Unless you feel like remastering this yourself definitely only of interest to the most dedicated prog fans, er I mean difficult glitch converts.