Review

Back in the mid-1990s, Bruce Russell published the Free Noise Manifesto, a declaration of content, intent and parameters for the sound work done by him and fellow travelers around the globe. He knows how to use words, so let’s give him a bit of space to indicate what this record of cell phone recordings made over the course of a southern summer (he lives on New Zealand’s southern island) are about:

“Mono, no mastering.”

Editing, and adjusting speed and volume were the only steps taken between the nine performances recording and pressing. Demonstration Record (more on that title in a minute) eschews inessentials; there’s no polishing, no tunes, no singing to draw you in. But that doesn’t mean that it lacks hooks. A hook is anything that makes you listen twice, and Russell , who is also a member of the Dead C, knows a good noise when he hears (or makes) one. This record’s full of them. There’s the slowed-down water cistern on “Climate Study #1” and the layered pot lids and water jugs on “Climate Study #3,” which wobble out of the speakers like a projection of The Prisoner’s Rover bulbously bouncing across your wall. There’s the sputtering, billowing waves of fuzz on “Reduced Listening,” which combine the visceral pleasures of applying an electric razor to your cheek and a chainsaw to a tree stump.

And there’s the irresistible gravity exerted by the complex wobble that introduces “Holly Springs #2,” a piece that also demonstrates (aha!) Russell’s links to known music. While he has often represented himself as unburdened by chops, he sure knows how to get a blues sound by setting slide to guitar. Hook you it will, like barbed wire snagging your coat as you try to get over the top of some wall. He also manages to simultaneously reference the band Suicide and make them seem ostentatious by comparison with alternating buzzes and sizzles that he obtains from the Dirtbox Modulator (a device invented by Omit aka Clinton Williams, a recurrent associate of Russell’s over the years) on “Metal Petal.”

Russell uses nothing extra, but he also uses just enough to get his point across. The minimal dedications appended to the technical notes for each song transform them into simple signal sequences that make lucid statements of influence and apprehension. When your message is clear and your tools are sturdy, a little is all it takes.