Recorded live in Switzerland in September 2011, Killer_kipper‘s wheezing blend of electronic loops and musique concrète reveals Norbert Möslang at his most single-minded and oppressive. Juddering bass offers little in the way of an ordinary rhythmic foothold, and the scraping, grinding sounds of whatever he’s making scribble like a particularly grating shard of broken glass on the face of what could be metal, might be circuits (bent or otherwise), is enough to set teeth grinding in response. The sounds on offer here are actually all be electronic in origin – Möslang is credited solely with “cracked everyday electronics” – but the whirrs and crunches often have a real-world timbre to their brittleness.
This is how Möslang describes his method:
All of life consists of vibrations, and all of these relate to particular resonances. There are light waves, sound waves, microwaves… In this context you can start to combine things and, for example, use a radio as resonator for the waves from a remote control. And if it maybe doesn’t work, then you just have to go on changing the frequencies and looking for connections until you’ve cracked it.
So he proceeds to ensure that there is little in the way of apparent pleasantry to be heard over the two sides of vinyl, though that naturally begs the question of whether the listener enjoys being subjected to a seemingly random sonic assault. As such things go, this is quality stuff – when the dentist drill – or something which sounds like one – springs into vicious, squalling action, the immediate reaction is to twitch slightly in memory of every dental nightmare, real or imagined. But who would like to have their wisdom teeth removed in the middle of an electrical storm while a series of roadworks is underway? Perhaps Norbert Möslang has – and if not, he’s certainly provided the soundtrack to such an experience here.-Linus Tossio-
