VOTD 5/1/2024

 Wolf Eyes: Dead Hills (Troubleman Unlimited)

Purchased at The Attic

A week ago last Sunday I spent the better part of my evening with Wolf Eyes. Edgar Bucholtz asked me to open for them, without any expectations as to what I might do. I'm sure it's because Wolf Eyes has fostered a relationship with both Anthony Braxton and Marshall Allen. The suggestion hung in the air from a couple of people that I should join them, but I had no expectations and no intention of pushing myself on them. (I'll cut to it: I didn't sit in with them.) for my set, I developed a Max/MSP patch which would sample my playing, and loop playback at various speeds forwards or backwards. I could have as many as eight going at one time. I think the most I had was six, and that was already approaching sound mass-density. It was very well received, and the two guys from WE were very complimentary.

This is one of two WE LPs I've picked up recently. Their current lineup is of two people (Nate Young and John Olson), and it's enough. They make plenty of noise without a third member, as is the case of this 2002 LP. Aaron Dilloway was a member of the group at the time, who has had an active creative life outside of the band. I know that he had a record store in Oberlin too, but I don't know if it's still extant.

Nate told me that the band is able to play full time, and they rarely turn down gigs. I think that's pretty amazing. We talked before the gig over tacos next door to the venue.

I didn't ask them about their methods. Is it all improvised? I get the sense that maybe there are some loosely-constructed "songs" (or at least vocal pieces) and percussive loops they might set up, but that each gig is mostly improvised. I imagine for a studio session such as this, there might have been discussions. But for the most recent local live set, I saw no such dialogue between the two players.

I unintentionally listened to the B side first of this record (a picture disc) which has two pieces on it. It finds WE in a more, how can I say, "traditional"(?) industrial band mode. Pounding electronic beat, distorted/delayed vocals. The first side, with its side-long title track, starts more restrained. The ambience is sometimes interrupted by blasts of noise, but it takes some time to build in intensity. I appreciate that there's a degree of restraint, and not a barrage of noise continuously (which I'm not against, just that I appreciate the patience shown here). Long vocal sounds, growls and shrieks, and even more highly processed than the second side. The sound sneaks up before filling the room and again receding. 

While they work ins a highly synthesized sound world, I appreciate their palette of sounds. Nothing sounds out-of-the-box. From what I saw they don't use laptops, that much of their gear is analog in nature. It sounds very much like electricity crackling, running through circuits in intentional and unintentional ways (I'm probably romanticizing what they do in that description.)

Every four years, the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh hold the Carnegie International, their big prestigious international art show. Every time I attend, naturally I like some of the work, some of it not so much. But I often think, aren't there any good old fashioned abstract painters anymore? Someone who would have outraged patrons in the 1950s? I don't mean to suggest that Wolf Eyes is old fashioned, but I appreciate that a loosely-defined industrial noise band like this can still exist and thrive in this day and age. 

I would still like to sit in with them, though.