It seems odd that we’ve already reached the point of needing a John Wiese retrospective, but when one begins making noise recordings at the age of fourteen, it makes it easier to appear a well-traveled veteran by the times one reaches their late twenties. Teenage Hallucinations compiles recordings from Wiese first noise experiments, on an untitled cassette from 1992 to material released and recorded in 1999, including many of his early, now out-of-print, vinyl offerings. While the disc’s fifty-two tracks do chart a course of development, both aesthetically and technically, in Wiese’s performances, it remains clear that even his most primitive efforts aren’t the sounds of a young man at odds with his craft.
Teenage Hallucinations progresses in a reverse chronological fashion, but, aside from some obvious shifts in instrumentation and fidelity, there’s not an marked decrease in quality as the album moves towards its conclusion. Much of the more recent material proves to be the more dynamic, detailed and diverse, but the recordings from 1992 are solid, not only because they were made by a precocious fourteen year old. Wiese has always had a yen for the harsher side of noise, and this disc is no exception, with plenty of ear-piercing artillery. The ominous, repetitive swell that opens “90 Chop” is indicative of the rise in Wiese’s work of a more patient composer, and his departure from purely punishing material. But the track is in the minority on an album that tips its hat decidedly in the direction of mangled missives and stop/start contortions of shape-shifting destruction.
What is perhaps Teenage Hallucination’s best quality is that it’s quite easy to forget that it’s a retrospective. Unlike many other releases of its type, the ill-included outtakes and rarities are kept in check, and the divergences in style aren’t jarring enough as to remind the listener that they’re traversing the years in the span of one disc. Wiese’s full-length releases are few, considering how long he’s been at it, so an album like this makes for a welcome addition to his discography, for fans and newcomers alike.
