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fw02 - - Ribbon Effect ep98 released:
01 April 2002 price: $7 U.S., £5 U.K. Order>>> mp3: the building of the ship [8.6mb] |
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ep98
began with group improvisations, listening for intersections that
elicited images and emotions. Pulling from these improvisations,
the group created songs that are both simple and haunting. Building
anticipation with patience, desire, and a frontier sensibility,
they navigate sonic terrain between american folk and blues, various
experimental traditions, and contemporary electronic music. -------------------- Reviews of Ribbon Effect ep98 03/01/2003 08/01/2002 06/01/2002 04/30/2002 03/28/2002
03/01/2003 The
Wire , Chicago RIBBON EFFECT | ep98 (False Walls) Ribbon
Effect's debut Slip (Roomtone) was well received and this half-hour
excursion back to 1998 confirms the Chicagoan trio's capacity to
deliver a convincing ragout of rock-oriented improvisation and practised
studio know-how. Electronic keyboards, guitar, drums and accordian
are cast in moulds that owe a debt to dub, melodic Krautrock or
the sound design skills of group members Jacob Ross, Danielle Malkoff
and Bill Talsma. 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. 06/01/2002 Magnet,
Philadelphia RIBBON EFFECT | ep98 (False Walls) ep98's four tracks are this Chicago trio's earliest recordings. The group's spare, sculpted improvs maintain a degree of intensity and focus due in large part to Bill Talsma's energetic drumming. It's striking to hear his fired-up stick work play against the group's simple accordian and electric-guitar parts. Keyboards and electronic shadings flesh out Ribbon Effect's instrumental sound; stately tempos and the squeezebox's reedy tone at times imbue this 29-minute EP with a vaguely folk-like quality. The third track comes off as little more than an amorphous sketch, but the other pieces work just fine as unaffected experimental slow jams. -
Fred Cisterna 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
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