CCCP - Collapse
(self-titled)
Before the Cold War insinuations of this group's name get anyone into a duck-and-cover tizzy, be assured that these boys are as American as you and I, and that their music contains nothing in the way of communist propaganda, or laments about the demise of the Soviet Union. If it did, I'd be too busy running it over with my stars and stripes limited edition Hummer to even write this review.
Dispelling with last names, four men named Clarke, Chris, Charlie, and Paul (get it now?) from Williamsburg, VA are responsible for Collapse, a collection of improvised tracks, improvised in the studio and later substantially electronically massaged by Chris. CCCP's instrumentation is fairly diverse. Their core line-up is two violas, bass, and sampler, but Collapsed features the additions of piano, clarinet, harpsichord, guitars, and various sorts of electronic sound sources, as well as the musique-concrète touch of floors, shoe soles, and metal poles. Conversational snippets serve as the only obvious vocal additions to the music.
Tracks like "The Air is Peopled with Cruel and Fearsome Birds," "Signing While Sinking," and "Touch As it Spins" deal in heavy drones and thick layers of sound, with the latter excellently accented with echoed percussion. The group fare just as well when improvising more sporadically, though these tracks sometimes become too busy and chaotic to reflect a surprising sense of beauty that's inherent in even some of Collapsed noisiest moments. CCCP are at their best when they find those moments of clamorous beauty, and, despite some rough spots, awkward conversational fragments, and false steps, Collapsed is highly worth a listen, for just that reason.
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