Utopia:Banished
Nano
~reviewed by Eric
Rasmussen
Nano is a CD, I think, and it's about the most confusing CD I've ever come across. If you follow my reviews regularly, you'll know that every so often I talk about how thoroughly a given CD will confound me. My experience has given me a profound tolerance for disturbing and challenging music, and at this point in time I'm quite well-prepared for most music that comes my way. Nano, however, represents the side of music that is disturbing only because each song is really some seven or eight songs, and none of them make any sense or fit together in any meaningful way. But enough from me, this is how main man chris R.I.C.H. describes his sound:
"The intention of "how" making music is always conteminated by the will of creating something new and unique. The structures and energies of music, driving itself and the listener forward, are about to be cracked a little bit and refilled by alienating sounds digitally to keep a more organic, idealistic fueled flavor to the cold machine state. Combining what's left is the aim. Exposing its own uglyness, in a misbuilded and disfunctional system and area. Like a noise-patchwork around a song to make sure it won't collapse of is own fragility. a DIGITAL way to create certain NOISE fragments and putting them in a ROCK content."Yeah, so the CD is kind of like that. The electronic aspects of the music merge with the guitars and drum samples in a way that is very reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails. The music abruptly darts between quiet ambience, painful (for the listener, that is) crooning, nigh-intolerable screaming, standard rock/metal/industrial-ish riffs, and various assorted bleeps and blips. These sounds are all tossed in some kind of blender or... no, it's not a blender, it's more of a stew, but a stew mixed with many other stews in a giant decrepit bathtub. A large, mentally-ill man nick-named The Grater mixes the stew with his broom and... wait, what was I talking about?
Oh well, it couldn't have been an important point I was trying to make. Nano has many fine moments across its 18-minute duration, but the jumble of styles manages to elude me on every listen. Thus, the CD is only really enjoyable as background chaos, which I'm sure some of you want. The merciful length likely makes me "enjoy" the music more than I would otherwise, but some of the sounds would be plenty interesting without the bothersome vocals. This is worth checking out if you like to lose all sense of... er... stuff.
Track List:
1) DON'T YOU
2) BONJOUR TRISTESSE
3) EUROVISION
4) THAT SCRIPT LOST (version 02)
Utopia:Banished is:
Sebastian Greichen - bass guitar, scratches
and aditional synths on "don't you"; additional sample arrangements on
"don't you", "bonjour tristesse" and "eurovision"
chris R.I.C.H. - guitars, vocals, synths,
programming and arrangements
Utopia:Banished - Official Site:
http://www.utopia-banished.de/
3/16/04