SoD - 08
Taiga Remains - "Paper Lanterns" (3" cdr, ltd. 50)
Two transmissions from frozen forests scored for acoustic guitar, voice and computer. "One time I was in a fist-fight – long story, don’t ask – and I’d landed a couple, and taken a couple too, and then Time. Slowed. Down. Riiiiiiiiiiiight down, to the point where I was mentally focusing tight in on the swinging punches of my assailant at about 1.5 frames a second. And each breath I took was taking hours to draw and release, and the blood was deafening, banshee-howling as it sped around my body, hopped-up on adrenaline, spinning out on the corners and burning its tires in the cul-de-sac of my lungs. But then I started to hear little tiny melodies too drifting in and out of my mix; ghosting, skirting around on the fringes of my attention, as I was ducking and weaving and.. well.. this is the sound of "Paper Lanterns". Punching well above its weight, Alex Cobb's Taiga Remains project returns with more deep-listening psych-drone - eighteen-and-something minutes of the exploded microverse of the sound of one breath. In. And out. But it's not some kind of yogic transcendental meditation, concentrating on one's inner being with one's legs wrapped around the back of one's ass; it's more along the lines of Popol Vuh being tortured in slow motion on some medieval device which has been contact-mic'd and run through a 20,000 watt PA. This is mainly due to the astonishingly loud mastering; astonishing chiefly in that it's Really. Fucking. Loud.Frankly, I've had jet aircraft land on my head, and hurt less than I hurt the first time through with this thing on the cans. But really I guess it's bigger than the both of us; it's not so much about the single slow, calm inhalation and exhalation of you, or I, or that guy over there - nor is it the rattling echo of life-blood coursing through our arteries and veins and capillaries and pounding in our cauliflower ears and battered noses. It's the thundering, roaring of the stream of the protons emanating from the origin of the universe in its slow, deep, melancholic shuffle; expanding to fill all available space, and then collapsing in on itself again as it rounds final turn and into the home-stretch back towards the beginning of time. It's scored for acoustic guitar, voice and computer. It's the perfect intersection of drone and "harsh-noise." And it's really, really beautiful." -Stephen Clover (Foxy Digitalis) "Taiga Remains is the solo project of Students of Decay label head Alex Cobb. Although Paper Lanterns is just the second Taiga Remains 3” cdr released by Cobb on his label, it is clear that Cobb has been hard at work fiddling with his sound. Cobb’s other releases (Moon Colored Dogs on Students of Decay, and “Drowned Pollen Teacher” - part of the on Digitalis’ Wailing Bones series) use glacially shifting background drones as a base for whirrs, squawks, and buzzing tones to dance around. This yields majestic flowing soundscapes where tones pulse, bells ring, and shimmering loops appear transiently against a dominant background drone. By contrast, the two pieces on Paper Lanterns feature those elements that added color in previous releases as foreground agents while the formerly dominant drones fade in and out more intermittently. This may not seem like a big shift, but it changes the overall feel of the pieces significantly. Instead of a plush, enveloping headrush with little bits of ear candy to fend off complete drooling stupor, now the listener ends up being much more actively engaged. Think of it as the difference between early Birchville Cat Motel and recent Robert Horton headtrips or My Cat Is an Alien careening through an asteroid belt thrown down by Hototogisu. Or possibly even Otomo Yoshihide’s jittery spastic energy tempered by Philip Jeck’s patient sonic washes.Some of this is likely media related. The 3” cdr time limit means that instead of unfolding slowly and leisurely, the sounds on Paper Lanterns mutate restlessly with very little global continuity behind them to hold them afloat. Nothing really sits still or coasts here. It reminds me of a time lapse film that compresses the activity of several days into less than twenty minutes. Making this type of fast forward seem as though it is still happening organically without herky jerky movements is no easy feat, but Cobb’s mastery of the mixing process is a marvel as tiny motifs constantly swim in and out ofaudibility. If there’s a criticism of the release it’s that onecan feel as though all these gyrations do not But maybe they aren’t supposed to have a destination and in any case, the journey is fascinating. Paper Lanterns is the work of a fertile and restive imagination and Taiga Remains is definitely a project to keep an ear out for." -Steve Rybicki (fakejazz) "Limited to 50 hand-numbered solo set from Ohio’s Alex Cobb who runs the Students Of Decay label (a ton of good stuff coming up there, keep yr ears peeled) and records under the name of Taiga Remains. Beautifully detailed dusk-coloured drone settings that cross the DIY trance-logic of UK operatives like John Clyde-Evans (esp. the Fisheye LP), Andrew Chalk, David Jackman and Alex Neilson with a blush of impenetrably treated acoustic guitar, distant choral vocals and subtle computer stylings. Hard to believe that this guy doesn’t live in the North of England, but by the sounds of it he’d fit in like a fucking native. Last copies anywhere and highly recommended." (Volcanic Tongue)
SOLD OUT *note: "Paper Lanterns" is included in its entirety in remastered form on "Crushed Radiant Deities"*