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fw01
- - Tiny Hairs Subtle Invisible Bodies release
date: 01 April 2002 price: $12 U.S., £10 U.K. Order>>> mp3:
Feldspar Spurs [5.8mb] |
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Tiny Hairs produce constantly mutating sonic textures which pass through states of somber melancholy and joyful exuberance, creating a complex aural landscape rich in contrast and imagery. Their music features manipulated radio transmissions, fragile melodies, droning chords, subtle percussion, and insect-like electronics, producing quiet, trance inducing results. Tiny
Hairs occasionally begin with planned melodies or chords, but mostly
play without a pre-arranged structure or musical destination. The
extended improvisations shift and mutate at a glacial pace, allowing
space for the development of inventive and ephemeral instrumental
ideas. -------------------- Reviews of Tiny Hairs Subtle Invisible Bodies 08/01/2002 08/01/2002 05/24/2002 04/30/2002 03/28/2002
03/14/2002 08/01/2002 Lumpen,
Chicago
The inaugural releases on CJ Mitchell's False Walls imprint, Tiny Hairs' Subtle Invisible Bodies and ep98 by Ribbon Effect, nicely represent why Chicago is at the vanguard of experimental music. Both groups build upon rigorous improvisation and incorporate various electronic components, but the comparisons, for the most part, end there. Tiny Hairs, making its full length debut with ...Bodies, is a six man crew of sonic sculptors who specialize in hypnotic, droning instrumentals that recalls the cinematic sweep of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and the jazzy crawl of Tortoise. The LP offers seven studio cuts, including the insectoid "Carcasses of Bees" and the static glitchiness of "A Ghost Torn and Rolled Between the Fingers." Track #8, "Extensive and Well Catalogued Collection of Aspirated Objects," was recorded last summer at the improv-friendly Nervous Center. Ribbon Effect has been around slightly longer than Tiny Hairs (since 1998, to be exact), and made its debut last year with Slip (on the Roomtone label). Magnet magazine compared the album to the "shape shifting of (minimalist composer) Steve Reich and the more contemplative Krautrock bands." High praise, and ep98 builds on the promise of Slip in new and exciting ways. The opening track, "The Building of the Ship," is a rhythmic marriage of guitar and accordian that recalls the late Love Tractor, while "Cast Away" is a pulsing soundscape that benefits from seriously skittery electronics. Both
bands are welcome additions to the local musical landscape, and
False Walls seems to be on its way to joining the ranks of Thrill
Jockey and Some Odd Pilot as local labels to watch. 08/01/2002 Blue
Divide, Boca Raton TINY HAIRS | SUBTLE INVISIBLE BODIES (False Walls) Improvisation: it can either be seen as a form of modern expression or a general lack of musical talent and knowledge. The latter theory can be dismissed when describing the antics of Chicago's new improv-collective Tiny Hairs. The sextet's debut features remarkable playing from all members, simply recorded live with cooperation from early art-rock, jazz, dub, and noise influences ranging from Can to improv-jazz legend Herbie Hancock. The music here creates a somber mood, not pleasant at all, and sometimes accessible. Unaware of what is coming next, somewhat similar to the musicians themselves, this listener is able to appreciate and at times understand the composition and complexity of the recordings. Possibly the definitive improvisational record for the new millennium. File next to: Evan Parker, Ekkhard Ehlers, & Stockhausen. -
MR 05/24/2002 Reader,
Chicago Post No Bills : section 3, front page Local
Release Roundup: Tiny
Hairs Subtle Invisible Bodies (False Walls) -
Peter Margasak 04/30/2002 Comes
with a Smile, London
The inaugural releases from Chicago label False Walls are two CDs that meld differing degrees of chaos and control, both borne out of live group improvisation. 'ep98' constitutes the first recordings from Ribbon Effect, whose debut album, 'Slip', was released last year. Building upon melodic or textural ideas culled from improvisation, the three-piece construct slow-burning instrumentals that build to an energy that imbues a sense of movement. Bearing comparison to Directions in Music, Ribbon Effect layer repetitious riffs, which gradually emerge out of abstract ambience, mutating through interlocking phases towards pulsing crescendos. "ep98" is a haunting collection whose use of accordion as the lead instrument signposts their blending of the organic and the electronic. Slightly less tangible is 'Subtle Invisible Bodies', from Chicago improvising sextet Tiny Hairs. Like 'ep98', it's another mix of ambience and aggression, silence and noise, stasis and dynamism, and other polarities besides, another record that unfolds its moods with patience and melancholy. Not without ambition, Tiny Hairs can be dreamlike and poignant like the more abstract, soundscaped moments of Hood, where melodies uncoil out of a melee of atmospherics. But perhaps 'atmospherics' is the wrong word, nominally demoting what is an essential aspect of the music, because Tiny Hairs achieve a balance, where the found sounds and electronic trickery that is often seen as an intriguing backdrop to the more 'musical' portions, is afforded equal aural status. On Extensive and Well Catalogued Collection of Aspirated Objects (they apparently take some pride in their Gastr Del Sol-esque faux-academic song titles), the live seventeen-minute album closer, their collectivity is apparent as melody emerges from the instrumental fog with a palpable sense of the players feeding off each other. It's a gratifying end to a great album. -
Martin 03/28/2002 Reader,
Chicago Spot Check: section 3, pg. 6 Ribbon
Effect, Tiny Hairs 3/30, Empty Bottle. -
Monica Kendrick 03/14/2002 UR
Chicago, Chicago RECORD
OF THE MONTH - LOCAL "I was living in San Francisco and one day I found a big, box TV set on wheels. So of course I rode it down a hill," waxes Chuck King, the electronics/turntable/short-wave radio/bric-a-brac engineer for Chicago's experimental sextet Tiny Hairs. And after listening to the Tiny Hairs' debut full length Subtle Invisible Bodies, that makes perfect sense. From the guitar/violin intricacy and glacial groove of "Square Sail Growing From the Branch of a Tree" to the Mexican accordion transmissions of "Berm", Tiny Hairs' minimalism is the sound of saddling static and riding it down the aural landscape in slo-motion. All at once their subtle melodies and open-ended drone will put you in a trance, only to be zapped out by random bursts of short-wave and punctuated by samples of what sound like grammar lessons. Too many improvisational instrumental artists either come off as too pretentiously brain-jarring or too overtly calculated, but Tiny Hairs' experimental compositions are spontaneously graceful as they build quiet anticipation without alienating listeners. |
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