Sunday, October 23, 2011

John Wiese 100 7" Retrospective at Family gallery in LA


I'm just realizing that John Wiese needs a serious in depth study from the 7inches archivists, he is a rabbit hole of projects and collaborations in all aspects of noise...so as seemingly impressive as 100 singles are, after looking at the list of bands on wikipedia he's been a part of or worked with over the years, I wouldn't expect anything less. From Sun O))) to Merzbow, Sissy Spacek to Wolf Eyes, this retrospective in LA at the Family gallery would be a perfect place to start. I'm imagining you can take the singles out of their sleeves and listen to them on the record players in the gallery. I actually pulled out a single I had in the noise section of the shelves on Mike Shiflet's defunct Gameboy label called "Soun - An Anonymous And Random Compilation / Composition" which is a collection of 100 sound samples from John, Matmos, Bastard Noise and Greg Davis among others...at least 3 from John, solo, as Sissy Spacek and Amps for Christ with John Wiese. Now that I'm looking at this list of artists on the back of the sleeve it's surprising how many more I recognize now, this compilation is a mini-show in and of itself. I have to start looking up the rest of these guys.
This single a pretty interesting mess of sounds that really illustrate the range of experimentation that is happening in this badly named genre where really anything goes. From the subtle quiet experiments built out of some interesting process to an attempt to outright damage speakers, every kind of artist at work, pushing and exploring the idea of music, or even the idea of sound itself.

Sad I can't actually make it out to this one, hope it makes it in some form here to NY, but in the meantime there is a signed catalog for the exhibition which is going on the shelf next to Touchable Sound.

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