Bee Mask - Canzoni dal Laboratorio del Silenzio Cosmico 7.1

                 Here’s the first release from Edition Mego’s ‘Spectrum Spools’ division. If this is the kind of quality they’ll be having, I’m perfectly fine with it. Before I went to bed, I put this on and sort of drifted around for a while. That’s the kind of music you’re getting into.

                Side I starts off as if it was a irr.app.(ext.) track. Tension gradually builds through the light scraping sounds. Chris Madak teases this out as a loud drone is processed in the background. Eventually it just overwhelms you. Compared to Side II, this one is considerably louder.

                Almost as an exact opposite, Side II sounds much more melodic and calm. Sure, there are a few blasts of static noise. For the most part though, the Cleveland native touches upon the calmer aspects of drone music. The ending is pure gold.

                Overall, Bee Mask moves extremely quickly for a drone artist. During the course of 30 minutes, he introduces all sorts of strange themes. Some of these would not be out of place on a James Ferraro recording, while others feel more homages of Terry Riley’s early work. Either way, he does it well. It moves by quickly while still giving you plenty to ponder.

Spectrum Spools: A New Label

                Editions Mego may be one of my all-time favorite labels. Originally they started out as plain-old Mego. Due to various circumstances I have yet to be privy to, they became a Phoenix, burning out and rebirthing as a new label which does essentially the same thing.

                Lately they’ve been changing that format a little bit. For one, they’ve been releasing a lot more ambient-based sort of stuff like Mark McGuire and Emeralds. Sure, the noise hasn’t ended; they have the wonderful Robin Fox and Hecker. But its gradual shift towards more mellow soundscapes is hard to ignore. Plus, some of their releases have begun to get greater attention: Oneohtrix Point Never got a positive write up in none other than Pitchfork, alongside a few others from the Editions Mego roster. Usually it is just Boomkat covering them, so having a review site that more people read has definitely helped them out.

                Keeping this in mind, they created a sub-label: Spectrum Spools. Spectrum Spools will serve as their North American comrade. According to their blurb on their website, they claim it will be: “showing yet more talent shining up out of the North American synth underground”. Hopefully they’ll be right. It is about time the wonderful American experimental underground got some credit. 

                I look forward to these guys making good on their promise. Their diversity often means that I don’t always like what they put out, but more often than not, they release quality, something many labels forget when trying to jump on the bandwagon. Keeping tabs on experimental classical, digital, noise, metal and even folk (see Bill Orcutt’s unstable material) they make sure to try accept the weirdest of the weird.

                Right now I’m eagerly awaiting Fabric and Bee Mask’s material. We’ll see whether or not this proves to be a prudent move by Peter Rehberg, or if it will show he’s losing his mind. Be aware this is the same guy who thought participating in race car competitions would be a good idea for an Avant-Garde record label. Not sure why he thought that, seems kind of insane thinking about turning the masses onto obtuse noise and ambience with race car drivers. Plus, I think it ended up costing them a ton of money they probably didn’t have, though record label owners have to be somewhat crazy I figure.

                March I’ll start having these two artists reviewed and seeing what they really have to offer, or if it’ll turn out being phoned-in ambient garbage like what I’ve been hearing more and more of lately. Here’s hoping for success.