Burning Star Core – The Very Heart Of The World (Thin Wrist)
I’m not really sure what to make of this, which has to be something of a rarity for this writer. Burning Star Core is one man, one C. Spencer Yeh, who is apparently classically trained (aren’t all these noise experimentalists) and has decided to eschew the ‘classics’ in favour of making noise for a living.
Good for him, as this particular brand of noise is very impressive. A quartet of songs, this album has three five-minuters, before closing with the seemingly obligatory 15+ minute drone session.
Yeh peppers his sounds with great layers of sound and instruments, with the occasional vocal sample thrown in. Unlike a lot of his peers (such as Birchville Cat Motel or Double Leopards), there is a very definite attack and aggression to this music, and it never seems like it is ‘just noise’. There is a method to the madness, as the epic ‘Come Back Through Me’ attains a sense of drone even when drums and piano are regularly recurrent in the mix. I have a feeling I will need to do a lot of listening to this apparently exciting genre, because most of it leaves me cold. Even Hototogisu, who I am supposed to love. What can you do.
POSTSCRIPT: As of January 2006, I have listened to Birchville Cat Motel on headhones and I’m warming to this scene. I hope to see them when they tour soon, actually. Maybe a look at their album will turn up on the blog when this list is done.
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