Tape,
2020,
Etched Anomalies, Montréal.
Available
Tape - edition of 86
REVIEWS
De discografie van de Zwitserse,. sinds half jaren ’80, in noise gespecialiseerde Dave Phillips is bepaald imposant te noemen. Middels de diverse projecten waar hij deel van uitmaakt en zijn activiteiten als solist groeit deze gestaag. Vorig jaar kwamen er weer zes nieuwe albums bij en onlangs lanceerde hij voor Attenuation Circuit ‘Post Homo Sapiens’.
In 1994 / ’95 verbleef Phillips een half jaar in Thailand, daar raakte hij geïnteresseerd in het geluid van kikkers en insecten en middels deze geluiden in het werken met veldopnames. Die interesse in kwetsbare ecosystemen vormt ook het uitgangspunt voor Post Homo Sapiens. Op de achterkant van de hoes staat Phillips uitgebreid stil bij de wijze waarop de mens zich niets aantrekt van de onderlinge samenhang in de natuur en zo zijn eigen leefwereld verwoest, om te besluiten met de rake opmerking: “Nature doesn’t need us.”
Zoals het evenwicht precair is in de natuur, zo is het in ‘biosemiotics’. Een lange drone vol ruis en kraak, waar geregeld noten uit lijken te vallen. Dan doet een bas gedreven ritme zijn intrede en krijgt het stuk diepgang, gevolgd door de toevoeging van een zwaar vervormde zingende stem en ten slotte een lachende Agata Kramcyk. Wat hier het meest opvalt is de zeer verdichte textuur, de muur van geluid die Phillips optrekt. In ‘Stridulated Requiem for Homo Sapiens’ slaat de beklemming toe. De zeer diepe, penetrant klinkende bas, de zeer hoge, zeer scherpe fluittoon, de machinale drone die daar doorheen slipt. Dit is in alles een requiem, één waarbij de rillingen je over de rug lopen. En dan de wijze waarop Phillips al die klanken met elkaar verweeft tot één onlosmakelijk geheel, dit is iemand die zijn instrumentarium tot in de kleinste details beheerst. Dan horen we aan het eind de kikkers, maar zodanig bewerkt dat het meer klinkt als een groep lachende duivels.
De duistere nevels aan het begin van ‘Arthropod Phenotype’ doen je huiveren. Het lijkt wel de soundtrack van een horror film die zich hier ontvouwt. Dan breekt in ‘Metamorphosis’ de zon door, horen we het dierenleven, tegen de achtergrond van een monotoon ritme. Maar niet voor lang, de beklemming neemt geleidelijk weer toe, alsof de wolken voor de zon schuiven. Het is geen gewone regen die er valt in ‘Hydrotropism / Heliotropism’, te gruizig, te dik. Het voelt als vuile regen, zure regen, verwoestende regen. Eindigen doen we met ‘Phytognosophysiology’. Hier intieme pianoklanken, de lang uitgerekte klanken van vocaliste Luzia Razu en wederom dierengeluiden, als stemmen in de nacht die zeggen “We don’t need you, you need us!”
Het album is te beluisteren en te koop via Bandcamp.
(Ben Taffijn, NIEUWE NOTEN, May 2020)Dave Phillips is coming back with cd released by Attenuation Circuit (also as a cassette), and what a comeback it is. His work was always both ingenious and individualistic in an every sense of this word, derived from musique concrete, drone, noise and even a bit of post industrial and spoken word of late 1980‘s - he blends all those idioms in his own amalgam or should we rather say - puts those as a reference for something that could be labelled as ritualistic protest music.
His music was always a manifesto - a decentring punch into a face of anthropocentricsm. Puts into persepective our own approach and the role human species assumes in the whole food chain and biocenosis of the post-modern world.
But Dave’s art is far from academia and any sort of uptight form and pretense. It’s direct, agressive but not in vulgar way, dissecting the biology of human voice into an utter horror of noise. Surprising and enticing at the same time.
His work is far from the clichees of underground noise - Dave is self-educated and you can hear that - both in terms of composition and the production which is a great showcase of how can you infuse all sorts of experiments from the post WW2nd world of modern music into something really intimate.
Enjoy his work - every time I listen to it - it’s both rich and endearing - comes across as a shocking experience - especially in his live action.
(Hubert Heathertoes, Felthat-Reviews, May 2020)Frogs Rain, Humanimal, Songs of a Dying Species, Insect Apocalypse, Frogoroth, Sixth Mass Extinction, Post Homo Sapiens (ACU 1017, CD / Etched Anomalies, ETCH 03, Cass) - DAVE PHILLIPS schraubt weiter an seiner Kritik an der Anthropozentrik, die sich abspaltet von der Koevolution mit dem Empfindungsvermögen alles Lebendigen und zunehmend das jahrmillionenalte Geben und Nehmen der Ökosysteme stört und zerstört. Seine Sicht wird dabei zunehmend dystopisch, und ist es noch Warnung oder schon Drohung, wenn er dem Anthropozän nichts Gutes prophezeit? Weil Homo Sapiens seine Maßstäbe verabsolutiert, um den Preis ständiger Verdrängung in einer Spirale zunehmender Anästhesie. Woher rührt die Schmerzunempfindlichkeit und Gleichgültigkeit darüber, dass die natürliche Hi-Fidelity untergeht in Dauerlärm und Müll, Müll und noch mehr Müll? Dem entgegen stellt dp als Fan von Jerry Goldsmith - dem er ‘Metamorphosis’ widmet - seine Omen, sein Loving the Alien. In Gestalt von Bruder Frosch und selbst von Insekten als fernen Verwandten vom Stamm der Gliederfüßer, deren Mimikri und Symbiotik mit der Pflanzenwelt er als biosemiotische und in Phytognosis eingebettete Lektionen dringend empfiehlt. Ohne Mutualismus kein Überleben. Ordovizisches Massenaussterben - Ursache: Kontinentaldrift + Eiszeit; Kellwasser-Ereignis - Ursache: Megavulkanismus + Meteoriten; Extinktion an der Perm-Trias-Grenze - Megavulkanismus des Sibirischen Trapps; … an der Trias-Jura-Grenze - Asteroidenimpakt + Vulkane; … an der K-P-Grenze - Chicxulub-Einschlag + Dekkan-Trapp; “The Sixth Extinction” (Elizabeth Kolbert) - Ursache: Homo sapiens. Dagegen inszeniert dp sein Ritual, mit monotonem Trommelschlag und gutturaler Stimme, eingesenkt in eine bienenschwärmerische Insekto-, ja Faunosphäre, mit einer Nymphe, die darüber lacht, wie dämonisch Pan da wieder tut. Auch paukendes Dongen und sirrender, hochtourig sausender Noise werden infernalisiert durch eine panische Stimme und garstiges Krähen und Blöken. Ein Monstergrummeln wie von Sauriern geht über in ein gezupftes ‘Dies irae’, auf dem wieder Krähen sitzen. In brodelige Ursuppe spuckt saurer Regen, Feuer knistert, und dp denkt nicht daran, Natur von Noise zu scheiden und zur Idylle zu schönen. Er gongt den Kessel, der ebenso Zaubertrank wie Gift enthalten kann. Und lässt zuletzt eine Sopranstimme zum Himmel schreien, zu elegischen Pianotönen, Insekten, Vögeln und dem eigenen Keuchen. Ecce Homo!
(Bad alchemy, Issue BA 104, March 2020)“Eco Lament”
Here’s our old friend “Mr Happy” Dave Phillips, the very extreme sound artist who lives in Zurich, often abbreviates his name to dp, and is associated with the radical Schimpfluch group…I see he’s still got something to say about the insects, judging by his powerful new record Post Homo Sapiens (ATTENUATION CIRCUIT ACU 1017).
The last time we heard him delivering a lecture that was part entymology, part noise, was on the 2010 record Mutations which he made with the renegade scientist Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, whose strange and challenging paintings she made depicting what she saw through the microscope were printed all over the covers of that ini.itu record. The gist of that Mutations item was that the insect race is, under the ecological ravaging wrought by capitalism, suffering profound changes on an unprecedented scale; the evidence of Hesse-Honegger, dp would argue, is being ignored and suppressed for the inconvenient truths it reveals. Well, Dave has upped the ante once again on Post Homo Sapiens, with a record that laments global ecological disaster and ties it in to a pessimistic assessment of the current situation. On the back cover, speaking in full capitals, Dave Phillips barks out a relentless text about how the “successful evolutionary pattern” of insects and plant life, with its co-dependent systems of plant toxins and chemical defences, is under strain; interestingly, the risks he identifies this time are more to do with man’s alienation, our separation from nature, our increasing reliance on computer technology to perceive, apprehend, and understand the world. dp’s stark take on this situation is bleak; “we seal ourselves into a numbing solitude,” quoth he, “the ingenuity of the forest gives way to monocultures.”
Evidently, as the title of this record strongly suggests, he anticipates a future environment where man doesn’t exist at all, so-called civilisation has collapsed, and whatever future nature has in store, it won’t involve human beings. “Nature doesn’t need us”, is his closing statement, uttered with an air of finality. To drive home these sentiments, the record uses remorseless, unsettling and highly challenging sounds, often presented at some length; through these long tracks of say, 11, 14 or 18 minutes, we have no room to manoeuvrer and nowhere to hide as the grim noise uncurls. It seems that the sonic aspects of this record are what appeal most to the label owners, Attenuation Circuit; they speak approvingly of the creator’s “mission to use intense sounds to change our perception of what it means to be in the world,” and they like the idea that this noise can “de-center our certainty that we as humans are always in control of the world we inhabit.” For all this, and the claim that “quasi-industrial noise parts” can be heard on this record, I’m finding Post Homo Sapiens more accessible than the Mutations record, in many ways. Mutations used lots of insect field recordings, I seem to recall, and these were layered in such ways as to create an impossible, airless quagmire of sound that was quite nauseating to endure (although I expect that was the point). On today’s record, there is plenty of gloom, foreboding, and grim warnings of imminent catastrophe implied at every turn, but there are also stronger dynamics; he’s not afraid to let some air and light into the otherwise dark drones and inhuman thumpings, and the music is all the better for that.
This is deliberate too; the press notes point out that one track, the 11:30 ‘Metamorphosis’, is dedicated to the film composer Jerry Goldsmith, rightly regarded as one of Hollywood’s finest craftsmen in the OST area, and one who has turned in many primo examples of suspense-inducing, atmospheric chord clusters for the films he’s scored. It’s good that there’s a part of Dave Phillips that’s comfortable with emulating such a one as Goldsmith, as opposed to young upstart wannabe industrial-types who pattern their every move after Steve Stapleton, Whitehouse, or Maurizio Bianchi. Permit me also to note the presence of two able collaborators, Agata Krawczyk and Luzia Rasu, who have lent their golden throats to three tracks here, at least one of them doing much to heighten the mood of hysteria and panic. (Luzia Rasu has worked with him before, on Selective Memory / Perception and The Call of Cthulhu.)
Lastly, with pointed titles like ‘Hydrotropism / Heliotropism’ and ‘Stridulated Requiem For Homo Sapiens’, we’re getting our requisite dosage of scientific terms knitted up with the hectoring lecture we so richly deserve. Given the state of the world today, none can gainsay the messages spelled out so plainly on this harrowing release (he’s like a more radical, anarchic version of Greta Thunberg), and it’s to dp’s credit that he works so hard using sound to give added force to his theme. Not an easy listen, but a powerful and cathartic experience; full marks for this troubling and worrisome creepster music.
(Ed Pinsent, Sound Projector, February 2020)Hot on the heels of his LP ‘Sixth Mass Extinction’ Dave Phillips now releases ‘Post Homo Sapiens’; more music (sixty-six minutes) and less text; it is about insects and how they are among the earliest species on earth and how they evolve and how we, humans, could learn from that. The music comes with two instructions, “play loud” and “as one listening session”. That last one is easily done and something I always do, but the first one comes at the wrong moment. The downstairs neighbour in this ancient, no-isolation house, asked if the volume could be down a bit.
Headphones are not my thing, not always, but it helped here. There are six pieces on this release and four of them are well over eleven minutes. Of interesting note here is that Phillips made a small yet significant change in his compositional approach. His music is loud, that it still is, but sometimes works with abrupt changes and cuts. A door slamming, a burst, cracking. Here, in these six pieces, this is hardly the case. In each of them there is an ongoing sound to be noted that gradually changes throughout the piece, but not via an abrupt cut. In his pieces, Pillips uses a lot of heavily amplified field recordings, heavily processed voices (his voice, but also from Agata Krawczyk and Luzia Rasu) adding a creepy element to the music. It sounds like an element of horror, but not in a Hollywood entertainment sort of thing, but the urgency of our environment.
There is also room for piercing electronics, feedback and deep bass rumble. ‘Stridulated Requiem For Homo Sapiens’ starts with a deep and slow bass drum, before piercing electronics set in; it is the loudest piece on the CD. My favourite is ‘Hydrotropism / Heliotropism’, which is quieter, spookier and with cracking and crackling field recordings sounding like Etant Donnes, circa ‘Bleu’, but then slightly more musical; strange as that might sound. All in all, I thought this was quite a surprise and another excellent CD.
(Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, February 2020)Dave Phillips is a solo artist from Switzerland that plays a mixture of experimental and harsh noise and this is a review of his 2020 album “Post Homo sapiens” which was released by Attentuation Circuit.
Distorted sounding drones start off the album while most of the tracks are also very long and epic in length. At time s the music also gets very avant garde and experimental sounding along with some screams also being used briefly which also adds in a touch of black metal.
Home made instruments also take the place of a percussion along with some harsh noises and power electronics also being utilized quite a bit throughout the recording. Throat voices are also utilized at times as well as one track also introducing programmed beats onto the recording and all of the tracks also sound very different from each other, some songs also bring in a good amount of field recordings, pianos and whispered spoken word parts can also be heard briefly.
Dave Phillips plays a musical style that takes experimental, drone, field recordings and harsh noise and mixes them together to create a sound of his own and the production sounds very dark.
In my opinion Dave Phillips is a very great sounding mixture of experimental, drone, field recordings and harsh noise and if you are a fan of those musical genres, you should check out this solo artist. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE “Biosemiotics” and “Metamorphosis”. 8 out of 10.
(Hatred Means War zine, January 2020)Dave Phillips’s discography is daunting, but many of his releases are good starting points into his universe of exploratory sound-gathering. Post Homo Sapiens is one of them: Its six tracks encompass confrontational noise, haunting drone, minimal ambience, and even distinctive, if deconstructed, rhythms. Each piece quickly builds its own self-contained atmosphere, but you can also hear connections between the rattlings in one track and the scrapings in another. There’s a recurring sense that the world is generating this sound, as if all the sonic cracks and noises, the hollowed-out feel to Phillips’s reverberations, are something someone left behind. If in fact the title means that this is what the planet will sound like after humans are gone, we’re going to be missing out on a lot.
(Marc Masters, Bandcamp, January 2020)Screeching, prying dark ambient assembled from ghostly hums, booming percussion, and various field recordings. It’s a testament to post homo sapiens’ power and sublime instrumentation that, even though it clocks in at over an hour in its entirety, I never fail to become completely transfixed by it, unable to look away from its first cry to its final death rattles. If I were in a score-giving mood it would probably get my highest rating. There isn’t much I feel compelled to say about it here; I think the music does the talking. As the release page says: “PLAY LOUD as one listening session.”
Listen if: you’re on an elevator, going up, somewhere: where? It doesn’t matter. On each floor, the doors open and close. No one gets on with you; nothing stirs the void beyond the doors. You don’t get off, either; you’re not sure how, but you know that you have a long way to go before you reach your destination.
Favorite Tracks: “biosemiotics”, “stridulated requiem for homo sapiens”
(Secat, Counterzine, January 2020)