Planet Mu, 2004
Another Venetian Snares release, on the demanding side this time. After the gabberesque, sampledelic crowd-pleaser Chocolate Wheelchair on Planet Mu, and the quite sloppily crafted Horse and Goat EP on Sublight Records earlier this year (which meandered through the more electronic libraries at the Rosedale Crazy House to culminate in a series of jawbreaking non sequiturs), comes this more focused effort by the workaholic Funk.
Following the path of 2003’s Winter in the Belly of a Snake, Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding offers thirteen pieces of deceptively fast (the album seems to navigate in a kind of slowed down/frozen realm where velocity turns into jelly) and anally arranged electronic bric-a-brac, plus a peaceful moment.
Be warned, this shit is not to be played as background music. This really means to grasp your full attention.
Beautiful and venomous synths abound over the trademark Funk splattered beat collages, where simple melodies act as breathing crevasses, and top-notch studio trickery keep your auditory cortex busy. This command of production skill is particularly effective on “Ion Divvy,” where stereo panning leaves the listener in the midst of an exchange of ton-heavy blows between the speakers. Or take “Cadmiun Lung Jacket,” where a melody is hummed in a highly processed childish voice with eerie results.
A difficult listen from start to finish, Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding will reward those dusty interstices of the brain no pop tune will ever reach. You can always go back to your electro-pop chart-toppers if you can’t stand the pain.