Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith - Lake
(VHF)
Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith are some of England's most creative
and idiosyncratic musicians. This was their first recording together, originally
recorded in 1990 and released in a vinyl edition of 300 on Youngs's No Fans
label.
This record is so unique that it's almost hard to describe. R!!!&S!!! (as they are
often referred to) create music that doesn't fit into any category--experimental in
instrumentation and structure, though often surprisingly accessible and focused.
Lots of this record could be considered to be "songs"; the title track consists of
the rules of a public lake read with a loud percussive sound between them.
Side one brings in the album with "Lake," then moves into a few short pieces --
"Anti-social behavior" and "Anti-social behavior in Iceland," both voice pieces.
The vocals are spoken and are vaguely political in nature, though both R!!! and
S!!! are speaking at the same time to disorient us. "Iceland" cuts up and skips
the same vocals and creates a goofy minute of unintelligible language. A string
trio with electronics by Richard Ibarruri guests on side one, and "Loss" and "Art
and Literature" are both descendants of art rock a la the Art Bears or Henry Cow.
"Hymn" closes the side with chanting and organ; it's strange and quirky and
wonderful.
The second side is all instrumental, rather noisy, and still very strange. Most of
the side is the long middle track, "Dance: Help the Aged," a very rhythmic
piece that skips along over 9 minutes using a variety of instruments and
household items: oven tray, cardboard box, shakuhachi, "scraper thing," etc. It's
experimental music at its finest, though it might not be for everyone.
The third side consists of one 20-minute track, "Chord." Which is just that--one
chord, repeated on classical guitar and reed organ, for 20 minutes. It's an
exercise in repetition, and while the speed gradually increases, the slight
nuances of each chord as it is played differently from the others take on a whole
magnitude. It's minimal enough to make LaMonte Young jealous!
The final side of this record begins with the aptly-named "Bells" before
"Redenhall," a work of strange ambiance. A slow ringing composition of sound
that glows, it sets a nice mood before the record kicks into the 12 minute closing
track, "Goat." This song actually rocks a bit. Sounding like the Dead C with a
reed organ, the piece actually has a beat to it (probably the oven tray again)
while a melody unfolds over the duration of the piece. Twelve minutes have
never felt so long. The vocals are dramatic and moaning, and when the piece
finally sputters to a halt it gives the record some closure. Unfortunately, my CD
player was skipping on the last five seconds of the piece and kicking back two
minutes, keeping "Goat" in an infinite loop of sorts. I fell asleep to it and woke up
to the same two minutes the next morning. I dreamt of a strange hill and a
wooden club or some other object that was making me jump really high. I
jumped to a small house or some sort of structure where the mayor of Pittsburgh
was congratulating the landlord on his contribution to urban redevelopment in this
city. I asked the landlord how much rent was, and he told me that it was $17,100
per month. I'm not sure if "Goat" is responsible for causing this strange dream,
but I thought I would mention it anyway.
My biggest complaint with the CD reissue of Lake is with the indexing. The CD
is sequenced into four tracks, to represent the four sides of the record. There are
actually fifteen songs on LAKE, so I have to scan through each 20 minute track
to find a specific song. This is similar to R!!!&S!!!'s Red and Blue Bear CD, which
sequences a bunch of songs into 3 tracks; maybe they want to annoy the
listener, or take revenge on the CD buyer in a fit of vinyl righteousness?
Anyway, check out Lake if you like adventurous music; while R!!!&S!!! are
certainly an acquired taste, they have some interesting ideas that could appeal to any open-minded listener.
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