San Francisco’s Rhythm & Noise: researched, revisited and reissued.
So I’ve been skimming the cheapo used bins at Newbury Comics all across the region lately. The findings have been astounding, and dirt cheap. It’s times like this when the desire to experiment and take risks runs wild. This is when you buy something just because the cover looks cool, and wind up discovering a new band and falling in love with them.
This time, however, I’ve been spotting this reissue from the famous Asphodel label, released in 1996. At first glance, I thought this was simply a rerelease of the Ralph Records classic Rhythm and Noise “Chasm’s Accord.” It was much more. Rhythm & Noise is a group of musical “artlaws” whose primordial sonic onslaught fused industrial percussion, vocal gestures, din, ambience, and vibration into an apocalyptic or serene sensorium. During the seventies and eighties, Rhythm & Noise’s early audience abduction and “mobilization” events eventually evolved into Sound Traffic Controller’s audio-cinematic presentations. So, I’d come across this a dozen times, but this last time I decided to pick it up and check it out. As it turns out, this CD compiles tracks from both of Rhythm and Noise’s 2 LPs for Ralph, Chasm’s Accord and Contents Under Notice. But more importantly, this CD brings to light over 27 minutes of previously unreleased material as well as a documentation of the band’s formation in the late 60’s in Seattle as a multimedia performance group under the name Theadra Matr, with rare photographs and descriptions of the their events and installations. Well worth the price tag of $1.99, so into the Sold pile it went.
The audio selection (click above to listen) is called “Slug Path” and is a vintage 1975 live performance recorded directly to cassette. The fidelity is a little off, but it captures the spirit of what was going on globally in the earliest pre-industrial scene: San Francisco, London, Sheffield and more…
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Naut Humon was the primary catalyst, producer, arranger and performer of Rhythm and Noise. He later founded Sound Traffic Control in 1991. He also participated in Cellar-M, which was was an experimental collective that came out of CalArts, operating in the Bay Area in the first half of the ’70s. Heads of the project were Naut Humon, Rex Probe (later working with Naut in Rhythm & Noise), Stefan Weisser (later known as Z’EV and many other projects) and Will Jackson. The only known recordings of Cellar-M may be found on the fabulous Z’Ev overview, “One Foot In The Grave.” His later, more ambient work as the Iso Ambient Orchestra, may be found of Asphodel’s “Drone” series of compilations (A Storm of Drones, A Swarm of Drones, The Throne of Drones, etc.), which predates this reissue and established the link to Asphodel for this reissue. Throughout the years, along with his own electroacoustic excursions and products, Naut has collaborated with dozens of artists and musicians of numerous influences, disciplines and styles.
As far as the two albums go, the experimental, largely unstructured sounds on Contents Under Notice fall roughly under the umbrella of the band’s name, but just barely. One side consists of various-length sonic mood pieces (“Lull,” “Vagues,” “Looms,” etc.); the other is filled with “Monomenon,” a long hypothetical score of indescribable audio goings-on. It incorporates industrial sounds, other audio vérité, synthesizers, tape manipulations and god knows what else. In its raucous, multi-layered complexity, the piece asymptotically approaches sheer white noise din.
The troubling anti-new age ambience on Chasms Accord could serve as the soundtrack to any number of offbeat films. Cut up into 13 segments with wonderful titles like “Lingering Fingers,” “Bent Metal Forest” and “Delve,” the LP — which acknowledges the assistance of Z’ev, Diamanda Galas and others — is high on drama and low on intentional ugliness, making it a vivid and apropos match for the stress of modern life.
The original cover art for Chasm’s Accord, which is also used as the front cover for this reissue (shown above), has one of my favorite pieces of collage art ever. Click on the image to see a much larger size version.