THE WIRE #315 MAY 2010 Soundcheck
Eric Blevins began compiling Paper & Plastic in 1991 for his suitcase imprint, only to see it finally released nearly two decades later. Throwing a light upon the Noise, collage and sound art scene of the late 1980’s and early 90s, the release was originally scheduled for 1998 in time for a performance in Atlanta from Yeast Culture, tac, Achim Wollscheid and Blevins’ own project A4, but that was thwarted by a botched mastering job.
Fortunately the delay has benefitted the work, as strains in the global underground have since taken up the same strategies found here of mangled tape, performative acoustic noise, outsider intentions and mistreated instruments. By skipping over the use of sonic errata from the clicks ‘n’ cuts school of early laptop jocks, Paper & Plastic neatly links these Old School analogue sounds with the noisemongering of today.
The Paper disc features longer works with more emphasis on the space around the scrapes, hisses, drones, and squalour. In the Small Cruel Party track “Lrpisti Ipp Pauaeeteq”, crunches from shards of glass and metal sit above long-decay echoes within some bunker or catacomb, transforming a simple formalist exercise in spatialisation into an unsettling piece of abrasive agitation. Yeast Culture offer a slice of their occluded ritualism with dubby delay patterns, sodden atmospheres, and minimalist junkyard gestures.
Razor-sharp edits position short, sharp tracks from Sudden Infant, Wollscheid, z.B.u.a, A4, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock and Merzbow for a more frenetic programme of Noise concrete techniques on the Plastic disc. So abrupt and shambolic are these tracks that it’s difficult to discern where one ends and the next begins. As a result, this half stands as a well-conceived concoction of Noise-junk and analogue abuse.
Jim Haynes
STOMP & STAMMER 2010
Do the sounds of pipes clanging, leaks dripping, gears grinding, and cats being disemboweled by rusty utensils – all at once – give you a big ol' stiffy? Then you, friend, don't get laid as much as you could. You also need to pick up Eric Blevins' new two-CD compilation of tape culture noise artists, Paper & Plastic. Begun in 1991, Blevins was set to release the compilation in '98 to coincide with a noise-fest he arranged at the Red Light Café, but apparently the tapes were mastered at the wrong speed – to which I respond, "who would know the difference??" Anyway, here it is 2010 and Blevins is finally releasing P&P on his Suitcase label in a package high on art but low on details. Most of the participants hail from far-flung locales (as best I can determine, Blevins, as A4, is the only Atlanta artist represented), and the mood ranges from freakishly soothing to bloody bothersome. All I know is had they been blasting disc two's disjointed industrial collages every day at Gitmo we'd have been given Bin Laden's whereabouts years ago.
SOUNDPOOL 2010
V/A: Paper And Plastic (Suitcase 2xcd)
An excellent double disc compilation showcasing some of the mid 90's finest. Featuring Ios Smolders, Yeast Culture, Small Cruel Party, Rudolf Eb.Er., Emil Beaulieau, tac, Kapotte Muziek, and plenty of others. Most of the content seems to revolve around prime era acts from Anomalous, Apraxia, and Petri Supply's rosters. Equally as well compiled as curated, Paper And Plastic plays like a composition all its own with each disc flowing seamlessly from one track to the next (a rather lofty task for a double disc set featuring such a diverse array of sounds). Packaged in a painted DVD case with booklets and printed inserts by Incubator.
AQUARIUS RECORDS May 2010
V/A Paper & Plastic (Suitcase) 2cd
Here's to persistence! Eric Blevins of Suitcase Records began curating Paper & Plastic, a compilation from the global experimental-noise-collage-drone-n-destroy underground back in 1991, and thought that he was coming to a conclusion by 1998 when he had organized an installation / happening / performance thing in Atlanta with Achim Wollscheid, Yeast Culture, TAC, and Blevins' own a4 project that was to coincide with the release of this 2cd set. Unfortunately, the mastering was done at the wrong speed (remember DATs?) and the project was shelved for well over a decade. Whatever the reason Blevins had for the long delay, it remains unstated. Surely the artwork that Abo of Yeast Culture provided must have caused some of that delay, which is pretty ridiculous / stupid / awesome with its numerous hand-painted, silkscreened, and hand-stamped inserts and envelopes stuffed in the oversized DVD clamshell (which is also screened and painted); but would it be realistic to say this would take a whole decade? Is this why Abo started up the Incubator press once again (remember those Yeast Culture and Small Cruel Party cassette reissues from early in 2010)? Who knows? Ultimately, this is just another long-winded introduction to inform you that the contents within are fucking great.
So, there's Small Cruel Party, Yeast Culture, Sudden Infant, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Emil Beaulieau, Native X (supposedly featuring the Hafler Trio's Andrew McKenzie), Inzekt, TAC, a4, Kapotte Muziek, Chop Shop, Agog, Ios Smolders, and what noise compilation wouldn't be complete without Merzbow.
The material is split between the relatively droned-out, more spatialized Paper disc and the volatile, jump-cut frenzy of the Plastic disc. Los Angeles home-taper Agog offers a NWW-styled collage of cut-ups from found object manipulation that slides nicely into the damp field recording of subterranean drips from Ios Smolders. Blevins' a4 track is a minor-masterpiece with a sustained drone of hazardous environmental rumbling girding a patient scrabbling of various objects. Very simple, but very compelling. Such a strategy had been perfected by Small Cruel Party, who turns in a recording of crunched textures that sounds like a macro-recording of and army of ants crawling over a pile of safety glass, while deep echoing booms within some huge concrete structure resonate underneath. The Yeast Culture meditation on industrial wastelands settles upon crusty flutes occasionally popping above a mechanical grind and accreting dinscapes. Chop Shop's corroded drones of noxious low-end bursting into ferric noise completes the first disc in exemplary fashion.
On the Plastic disc, Achim Wollscheid offers 10 miniature "brakes" most being just a couple seconds long. These shortened bursts of rasping noises, serve to further slice and decentralize the listening experience of the already abraded, punctured, infernal noises that come by way of numerous tape-cut ups, turntable abuse, Dada sound poetry, vocal screaming, electrical ruptures, shortwave static, distortion pedals, and generalized noise-junk from Emil Beaulieu, Merzbow, the Schimpfluch members, Kapotte Muziek, and the like. Blevins should be commended for curating such a fine noise album out of so many different artists, as it's virtually impossible to discern when the tracks begin and end. Seamlessly cut-up noise is definitely a contradiction, but definitely a compliment!
VITAL WEEKLY JANUARY 2008
Paper & Plastic BOXSET
Although some may find it absolutely unnecessary, a nice package is
better than nothing. A handmade packaging can be such drag - the
Vital Weekly HQ has some prime samples to show to people. Somebody
who is known, at least to some of the older readers that is for
creating the most bizarre handmade packages is a man named Abo. His
label/band Yeast Culture didn't release much (a 10" and Lp by
himself, a Kapotte Muziek LP, a Hands To LP and a double 7"
compilation, as far as I can remember), but they all had a great
combination of handmade work and silkscreens. But Abo seemed to have
disappeared, just as did a small cassette label from Atlanta called
Suitcase Recordings. I am talking late 80s, early 90s here. Not a big
deal. People come, people go. Loose their interest, their money,
their idealism. Perhaps a pity for those who were promised a release,
but they might have put it on something else later on. When opening
today's mail, it was like going into a time machine. The box that
came out of it, looked like Abo's work. Sticky tape, small objects,
enveloppes - a little box of Pandora. It turns out to be the result
of a compilation that was supposed to be released a decade (or more?)
ago, but despite a launch party in 1998, it was never for sale. Now
it's released in a truely unique box. As easily you can spend the
whole time listening and watching the various ingredients of this box
- papers, objects, photo's. The line up reads as a who's who in
experimental and noise music of a decade ago (I do realize some are
still active as such): Inzekt, Sudden Infant, Wash Your Brains,
Runzelstirn And Gurgelstock (these four represent the Schimpfluch
label, who is probably on par with Abo when it came to crazy
packaging), Small Cruel Party, Yeast Culture, Agog, Chop Shop, A4
(the man behind the label), Ios Smolders, Das Synthetische
Mischgewebe, Merzbow, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Emil Beaulieu but
also more forgotten names as TAC, Native X, z.B.u.a., Appi. Achim
Wollscheid provides some of his more crazy conceptual approaches on
the CD called 'Plastic'. Now I come to think of it, a lot of these
are still active in experimental music (some less noise oriented), so
Suitcase did a good selection. Some of the tape/collage/experiments
may be naff and dull, but throughout it was a strong statement. By
the end of every year, I always get sentimental, play old music
(though not always of the likes of this) and reminiscine about the
past. In that respect this box does wonders. (FdW)
VITAL WEEKLY MAY 2010
Paper & Plastic "Standard" Edition
The story of Paper and Plastic is just as interesting as the release itself. Suitcase started in 1982 with releasing music of a4 and from 1988 through 2000 they organized numerous live events. After 12 years of silence Suitcase restarts as a CD label. Paper and Plastic is a two disc audio project that began in 1991 featuring rare and unreleased material by some of the most prolific and innovative sound/visual artists from the international experimental tape culture era of the eighties and nineties; Synthetische Mischgewebe, Yeast Culture, z.B.u.a., Achim Wollscheid, Small Cruel Party, Ios Smolders, Agog, Chop Shop, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Wash Your Brains, APPI, Kapotte Muziek, Emil Beaulieau, Inzekt, Native X, tac, Sudden Infant, Merzbow and All Fours.
A4 (All Fours) selected of all the audio and visual material and created the packaging design in collaboration with Incubator and Petri Supply. Abo of Yeast Culture silkscreened each individual copy. The original art includes 2 CDs inside a clear silkscreened dvd case, handmade inserts, a folio of original color silkscreened postcards and a 16 page booklet. The booklet looks like a catalogue of an exhibition/art event with a proper lay-out. The artworks are well created by Dada-Action Group, but the relation between the artwork and the booklet is far. Both kind of artworks are well done - a more artistic design of the booklet makes the release more interesting. Back to the music…. In 1998 Suitcase organized an event at the Redlight Cafe in Atalanta and only 15 copies were available for sale during that evening. Unfortunately the copies were mastered at the wrong speed, so now it is time for a reset. The contributions at Plastic are interrupted by short noise cuts of about 6 seconds
and Plastic gives a great summary of noise-musicians during that period. The building of the CD is well considered and tracks blend together. Only the track of Native X is a stranger between the others. The track is played on distorted guitars and recorded with low-profile equipment. Paper has more diversity and the "Rustle" of A4 is one of the most intimate tracks I have ever heard. The breaking and cracking of material, a dark soundlayer, the sound of crickets and the breathing through the nose of the musician are beautiful ingredients of this piece of music. The compilation is really a gain for the collectors and lovers of music during that period. (JKH)
