Piscis : Ultragreen (stereo radio show)

There are many things to be said about Noise in general, none of which could help me explain my irrational love for it, nor its convulsive beauty. Regarding the use of noise in music and sound art, there are lots of noise-mongers out there… and not many of them truly interest me. It's hard to make a composition based solely on noise interesting after the first couple of minutes. Tedium usually sets in. There's no vision, no architecture. For every composition like Xenaki's Bohor, there's about a thousand dim-witted hacks with a laptop and an amplifier cracked to 11. But then, when you find one that is good… it's like re-discovering fire all over again. I've been listening to the music of Piscis for the last months. He's good. Strike that, he's formidable. This guy can truly channel the spirits. And you know, not all of his releases are as noisy as Ultragreen… some of his stuff is in fact melodious and terse. Most of it is bold but not too extreme, free form yet very organized… fine musique concrète improvisations laboriously sculpting tone, timbre, and texture in real time. But with this album here, he really pulled all the stops. The more the reason to praise him, for Ultragreen succeeds where most fail. You'll probably need your safety helmet though. This is art for those with true grit. Trust me, there is nothing brut about this. All tracks display a strong compositional intelligence. But you will need to stick your head in the oven in order to prove this claim. Trust me again, it's not that hard… you don't need to be a masochist to enjoy this… in fact, just listen to the title track: it's pure joy. I mean it. You will quickly get used to the violent element, and will learn to transform fear into pure exhilaration. And there's a reward for the brave and the faithful: intelligible rock and roll rhythm guitars ringing triumphant from minute 6 onward. You have to fight for your bliss in this universe, and Piscis knows it.  

If you still don't trust me, just read this: "This I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid." If these great words by William Blake do not shed some light into the cathartic appeal of Noise, then I don't know what will.

E. Padilla

Ultragreen - (stereo radio show)

Poema Radiofónico

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