Bill Horist And Marron ‎– Sleep Hammer CD

Bill Horist And Marron ‎– Sleep Hammer CD

(Dead Angel No. 8) Bill Horist, eccentric but highly talented six-string deconstructionist, returns with a new album and a new collaborator, Marron (actually Tanaka Yasuhiko, credited with "dubharmonics" guitar). As with all other Horist releases, it's a surreal descent into the world of guitar manipulation, with ten tracks of experimental, processed guitar duets, most of them fairly short, featuring a wide array of bizarre guitar-generated sounds and -- yes -- plenty of conked-out harmonics. With the exception of a few tracks like "A Road Is Never Lonely," featuring crazed, metallic grinding and what sounds like a whole rack of guitars being exploded in rapid succession, most of the album is fairly subdued, in some places almost somnambulistic (hence the title, perhaps?)... but hardly boring, since the sounds and tones the two players generate are intensely harmonic, maybe even melodic at times (although not in any traditional sense). Horist's entire career as a guitarist seems to be rooted in confounding listeners and destroying all preconceptions of what can be done with the guitar, and this album is no exception. Is this a new form of noise-jazz, an attempt at turning art rock inside-out, or just a couple of dudes with perverted ideas about guitar abuse making wild sounds to confuse the masses? Only Horist and his newfound pal know for sure, but one thing is certain -- if you're already down with Horist's past exercises in guitar immolation, then you definitely need to hear this. - RKF

(Aiding & Abetting No. 278) Much more of a traditional Public Eyesore release than the Shinyville reviewed above (which almost sounded mainstream compared to the usual fare), Bill Horist and Tanaka Yasuhiko (aka Marron) trade guitar licks and noises. For all the unconventional noise, however, most of these pieces have a discernible structure and are quite intriguing. Purty durn cool. - Jon Worley