Goon Moon - I Got A Brand New Egg-Layin’ Machine Review
Posted by Evocator Manes on 02.15.2005
Music or insanity?
I tend towards insanity, myself, but then again, this collection of musicians, from excellence defined Chris Goss, guitarist Twiggy Ramirez and Zach Hill on drums from Hella, was apparently trying to create more fun and spontaneity than music or even art. In fact, it plays almost like a collection of random noise at times, very loosely pushed into a length of time that would normally encapsulate what we typically refer to as “songs”, but the songs that are there are very interesting.
This is highly experimental and people who need typically structured songs in order to like a “musical” release need not bother here at all. At times, this is doing well to even remotely approach any song structure. Mostly it is content to reside in the area known broadly as “sound”. Some might call it noise, but as there is actually somewhat of a point to what they are doing here, “noise” would not necessarily be appropriate. For sake of comparison, think very loosely of the Desert Sessions (of which Goss is a regular mainstay and which Ramirez has also appeared) gone horribly askew, sort of like a series of severe left turns on an acid trip.
The songs that are there have distortion pegged so high that it clips, along with lots of feedback, cell phone rings and utterly deranged vocals, when there are any. There are a few guest musicians and a few nonsensical vocals, which are reprinted in lurid green inside the booklet. The booklet itself features a somewhat devious but very clever artwork-egg pattern, which uses reflection to achieve its effect. You can see this by removing the booklet and sitting with light behind and preferably overhead, then tilting the booklet from a 90 degree angle down to 60 degrees, through 45 degrees to 30 degrees.
Apparently the way it was recorded was either Ramirez or Goss or both would go in and lay down tracks with or without Hill, then the other would come in and put something over the top of it, vocals, effects, guitars, whatever and they would just keep recording in this manner. With something over 50 songs, incredibly, they planned to tour with this, but instead pared it down to a 10 song release (about 19 minutes) and intend on releasing a full-length recording later on. I don’t know if the world is ready.
The 411: The drums here are astounding. Zach Hill from Hella is evidently trying to lay claim to the fastest drummer on the planet title and definitely making a case here. The disc itself, at times sounding like an obscene science-fiction horror movie backing track, at times approaching normalcy is the very definition of experimentalism and art in music and sound. Somehow it all works. There is no category applicable to describe this, other than a very wild ride, but it is probably not one most would want to take often, if once, if ever. Fans of more esoteric, arty, idea-oriented sounds should enjoy, but everyone else may want to hear before buying.
