art by Todd Brooks
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Ghost Moth / Fossils
Split (2007)
Catalog# PSR-0027
Cassette (C40)
Edition of 75
Listen to the entire album on Last FM now!
Tracklist:
Side A - Ghost Moth "Industrial Society and its Future"
Side B - Fossils "Symbols of Decay"
These two bands are perfectly juxtaposed for a split, complimenting each other in their unique ways. Both create atmospheric spontaneous primitivist jamms from junk and homemade electronics. Ghost Moth is a trio that features multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, a long time veteran of NYC's avant-garde. They open their side with a with a clarinet-led ecstatic ripper before collaging into a hissy live damaged flute jammy and lastly groping a clanging broken-scaper laced with late-night trumpet. Fossils begin their side with random scrapes and bluesey reverberations before heading into abstract scuzz and ghostly haunts. Must pick up a copy. They'll be going fast!
Ghost Moth side -
Recorded June 18, 2007. Track 2 is a live recording using a voice-activated walkman. Daniel Carter on Clarinet, Flute, and Trumpet. Todd Brooks and Robbie McDonald contribute noise, huzz, and clatter. Tracks 1 and 3 are live room recordings captured on a digital camera. more about... Ghost Moth
Fossils side -
Recorded live to tape, ghettoblaster style at mjc hq on Friday the 13th, July’07. more about... Fossils
Review from Smooth Assailing
"ghost moth is a brooklyn three-piece consisting of daniel carter (other dimensions in music, test!), robbie mcdonald (old ghost, skulking) as well as todd brooks (abuse report, feral comb, mialessot). this is the first release that i've heard from ghost moth and i'm really impressed. there's a great, but surprisingly rare marriage between somewhat traditional sounding jazz instrumentation, minimal electronics and prepared guitar. for me, the key component to their success was carter's playing. where skronking away on a saxophone with disregard for the beauty of the instrument has become trite in experimental / noise music, the fact that what he's doing, while it certainly falls under the catch-all prefix of "free-", still sounds lovely. i'm enamored by the nonchalant swagger of the trumpet in contrast with the minimalist electronic clatter and oscillations. nothing here is over the top at all; daniel's playing is soothingly slow, brooks' guitar playing is extremely light, aided by delay and purely complimentary, the electronics, while not pretty sounding, are more like a muddied clamor at their noisiest, and never cast a shadow over everything else. it's definitely one of those cases that proves the less is more adage. they're joined by another trio, fossils, from ontario, canada. that group's made up of: david payne (offensive orange, sick feedbag (with sick llama)), scott johnson (bottom feeder, hunting rituals, the lonely flight, slo-fi spirit wave, thoughts on air) and jeremy buchan (nope, just fossils). payne also heads up the middle james co. label. ah, fossils side. bleak! maybe it's because (the appropriately titled) symbols of decay was recorded on friday the 13th. maybe it's because they recorded it live to a boombox, giving it a terrific scuzzy low fidelity that enhances their understated approach. maybe both? this side kills, that much i do know. during part one (of three), decay comes across as an inverse to industrial society and its future. to the best of my ears' knowledge, it sounds like they'll also (very sparingly) use a guitar and trumpet and both groups used a similarly subtle approach to electronics. execution-wise, these two sides are far apart. there ain't nothin' pretty about the filth that fossils are making. the emphasis isn't on the musical instruments as much as it is on tense noise. when the trumpet is played it's as an added layer of sound; slow, drawn out noise. there's certainly nothing traditionally musical about it, but it works well. the beginning of part two manages to get a bit creepier as the noise becomes slightly more confrontational, sporadically coming and going in banshee-like howls. there's also a few more things happening this time with some junk percussion, random guitar chords, occasional squeals of feedback, muddled tapes and manipulation and a welcomed spell of repetitious noise later on. the final piece will revert back to the first's minimalism. the base is an alternately squeaky and rustling commotion, while the background consists of a deep, ascending burbling tone and buzzing vocal drones. so, yeah, i'm totally digging this cassette". - by avant gardening from Smooth Assailing
Review from Cassette Gods
Even in New York, a town with a history of musical cross-pollination, Ghost Moth is an anomaly. Posed with the unique freedoms and restrictions of machine-produced noise and acoustic improvisation, the group has stubbornly refused to do anything but teeter on the fence between the two. Daniel Carter's reeds, flute and trumpet will likely never be run through effects processing, and Todd and Robbie's guitar and electronics will just as likely never be anything but. Despite all contradictions and in spite of the members' numerous other obligations, Ghost Moth has somehow kept running full-steam for almost two years. If you haven't checked out this platypus of a group's unique sound, this murky 40 minute split with Fossils (a.k.a the "Middle-James-of-the-Month Club," almost as difficult to define) is an appropriate introduction. Includes full-color collaged insert. - by max from Cassette Gods |
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