industrial.org
relational overkill
If it wasn't obvious already, Ad Noiseam long ago chose to pawn any boutique, closed circle mystique for sharper tools and a bigger engine. These days it's all about alternative hip-hop a la kvlt acts like Dalek, fat wallet break beatings from Bong Ra, Ginsu edged IDM turned genre blendering from the likes of Mothboy. While cred lenders like master masterer C-Drik or post-post-dark-ambient purveyor Wilt take this out of the realm of the purely commercial "2001-2006" is definitely more geared for giving the stereos of "Grand Turismo"'s virtual garage a workout than lurking all lonely in the rarely thumbed stacks of the "electronic" section of HMV. My view is somewhat skewed by the fact that generally Steel Hook Protheses gets more air time in my house than Tarmvred but when I spin this set, I hear the oily smooth slickness of gears moving up a notch.
Now that I have finished screaming commercial at the top of my lungs, I should utterly contradict myself by pointing out tracks like "The Correct Way To Destroy A Piano" by Uniform. I haven't trashed enough ivories myself to judge the veracity of the claim but if being surrounded here by airwaves friendlier hip-hop and break beat makes it more likely for me to hear this type of thing blasting out of passing by bass cannons I am all for it. You have the fuzzy oversized bath towel ambient of Magwheels wrapping itself around you like the most comfortable yet final of drug overdoses. Or Cordell Klier hot rodding his ancient Wang mainframe terminal by over clocking it to 0.8MHz and washing away the trapped heat under the clicking case with a water cooling system. While there is no shortage of glossy trade magazine photoshoot here it ain't all lacquer and photoshop and enough substance backs up the pretty looks to forgo the pre-nuptial agreement.
The two audio discs are both varied but the second sides with pace over setting, way more boots are made for tapping tracks than flat on your back ambient flows. The slow baggy pants slack jaw lurch of Lapsed & Non Non is particularly chewy but with acts like Panacea, Bong-Ra, Detritus and Needle Sharing capturing slots you'll agree that a fourth cup of coffee might be necessary to keep up. The sweetness of Curtis Chip surprised me here, I should have been throwing my controller down in disgust but instead "Ice Fission" makes me want to go buy my girlfriend a "Hello Kitty" vibrator and a bag of jelly beans. Detritus is in his usual fine form, contemporary big beat cinematics that make me want to get shit done and likewise Mothboy sounds like a supremely rockin mix tape freshly back from motivation camp with a fistful of money and the will to spend it. Kirdec has almost in much in common with "Mass Destruction" era Curse of the Golden Vampire as the rest of what is here, squared off methodical bam bam all the way. Simple and effective.
The video portion really draws out the extremes for Ad Noiseam. At one point you have the ultra fucking commercial bum pat of Mothboy's "C.S.R", think ad agency quality rock video with vocals like Trent Reznor kissing your wallet. Slick but as not my thang as a thang can not be. Shortly thereafter however it's the art school degraded film stock screen test of Crno Klank which does its best to mix some vitamins into your caffeine laced vodka. You have Bong-Ra's "Sp33d d6mon (666mph rmx)" cotton candy cum porno joint which if it ain't making your pants feel uncomfortable (from both excessive dancing and overall crotch stickiness) you are a dead person. Then there is the only logical retort to Weird Al's "White and Nerdy", that being "Solo Shoots First". Larvae's obsessive abuse of paid work time for pure "Star Wars" versus ninja nerdiness deserves a Nobel prize or at least a free lifetime supply of Jolt Cola and pizza pockets.
The odd thing is that by far my favourite section of the DVD is the audio augmentedAd Noiseam discography. The fact that each release's cover art gets its own distinct audio track as part of disc's menu structure stretches the content level here to the point of requiring a steel reinforced concrete containment wall to stop it from flooding the countryside. Whoever came up with the idea should get a raise.
With a release of this scale you can't satisfy everyone I suppose, especially picky so and so's such as myself. Considering who this release is aimed at my beefs may be more past due date tofu than grade A cow flesh but being vegetarian I can't help it. First off Keef Baker needs to be buried in the same mass grave as insipid car commercial voiceover whore Keifer Sutherland - while technically adept this track would have too much aspartame content for a Korean romance flick let alone the gang here. Also, I know that an audiophile associate of mine would want to use the Bjorkism of Enduser & Kazumi to show off for guests but the vocal work annoys the crap out of me (and that's a lot of crap let me tell you). Chris Cunningham might be willing to take it on but then again he has no soul left to sully. And the forementioned Mothboy video lets me practice my fast forward technique like nothing else. As a percentage though, I'd need to get my glasses to make it out and for those with a higher ratio of Warp or Definitive Jux in their collections than PACREC or Cold Meat Industry these objections are entirely superfluous.
As I am writing this review, this 3 disc set is sitting on top of an external USB2 hard drive enclosure. The digipak just happens to be about the same dimensions which with the sheer amount of content here is not really that surprising since their data density is comparable. I would personally consider this collection more 2006 vintage than 2001 era Ad Noiseam but regardless of historical accuracy it is quite an achievement. Nicolas once told me that he was simply into "good music" and I can't really argue too much considering the evidence he offers. Whether you view this release as a stand alone document or back door into a new club, the label's impeccable curatorial ear will have your face pressed against the local BMW dealer's window for a suitable vehicle to blast this out of. Excellent.
