Can't - Prepares to Fail Again
(IRFP)
Can't - Can't vs. the World
(IRFP)
Armed with a Serge and homemade synthesizers, Can't (Jessica Rylan) is a one-woman noise project which deals typically in the repetition and permutation of deep, rhythmic analog electronics. Prepares to Fail Again, the first release on her irfp label, is a fairly strong collection of pieces which tend to evolve in similar fashion. A theme, of sorts, is stated, and as it repeats, the theme is tinkered with slowly until it has developed into a different, or at least largely modified, musical entity. More often than not, the themes are a marriage of a conceptual idea and its execution rather than a melodic refrain. The deep bass hum of "Reneging on the Promise of a Higher Education" is slowly distorted and otherwise mangled until, by the track's end, it's a series of strangulated static and chirps. "Like a Rubber Ball, I Come Bouncing Back to You" takes a page from the book of Aphex Twin by using stereo electronic pulses to replicate the sound of a bouncing ball which changes speeds over crystalline pellets of sound and occasional screeches before the "ball" is bouncing so fast and close to the ground that the sound is almost a steady hum. Some of Rylan's work, such as "Hindenburg vs. Titanic" or "Down the Drain," deals in more explicitly stated rhythmic motifs, while others, like "Poison Cloud" are minimalist in their more subtle evolution.
Can't vs. the World is a remix album of the songs, presumably, of Rylan's youth, precociously packaged with a photocopied and folded lover note. Songs such as Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" and Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack's "Tonight" are distorted to hell and laced with heavy bass grooves. Somewhat formulaic and a bit on the gimmicky side, Can't vs. the World is easily to weaker of the two offerings here, often sounding simply like an AM radio station that's slightly out of range fighting through the static with small bursts of song drenched in the white noise of an empty radio dial. Nothing nearly as inventive or engaging is to be found on this disc, and Rylan's much better off working with her own material.
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