OREN AMBARCHI

Stacte Motor

Genre: ELECTRONIC

MP3
FLAC

Boomkat Product Review:

Like many a geek I'm a big fan of Scrapheap Challenge. there's something about watching men (and occasionally women) rummaging around in broken old machinery that captures my imagination and gets my juices flowing. Not that I could do it myself however, I'm quite happy just to sit and watch, and now Aussie experimentalist and occasional metaller Oren Ambarchi has taken up a mechanical challenge of his own - playing musical instruments using only motors. I can imagine Robert Llewelyn now larking around the scrapheap as Ambarchi struggles to find the right motor for his purposes - luckily though I don't have to imagine too hard as the musician has kindly provided a picture story on the back of the record detailing his endeavours. Well enough about the back story, there's no point in banging on about it if it doesn't sound any good is there? Well quite surprisingly, what could have sounded so utterly wrong sounds utterly captivating thanks to the subtle hand of one of experimental music's true masters. The first side is the most oblique, and Ambarchi uses the motor to build repetitive rhythmic whirrs and hums from his Cymbal. The sound builds and falls slowly allowing the space and cavernous reverberations to take hold of your mind and creep into your subconscious. The real treat however comes when you flip the record over and hear Ambarchi's experiments with his usual weapon of choice - the guitar. Coming across like Eastern-flecked psychedelia vs. early 90s shoegaze this is a rather unexpected piece considering the nature of its production, and is something of a revelation. Ambarchi uses to the motor to create hums and drones from the guitar strings which whirr and whine as if being scraped by hundreds of tiny bows. Imagine Spacemen 3 jamming with Sunn o))) or a more musical version of Christian Marclay's incredible 'Guitar Drag' and you might have some idea of where I'm going here. This is another essential addition to Ambarchi's ever growing catalogue of oddities and I'm pretty sure (as with most limited vinyl releases) that this won't last very long at all...Highly recommended!

MP3 Release (2)