CD, Some Place Else, 2007
bsc.radionoise.ru
Noises of Russia’s website purports that “New Orthodox Line” is “experimental electronic music developed within the bounds of Orthodox tradition and presupposed the faith and religion as the main conditions of music creation.” The disc is presented as one track, its total running time being 47 minutes. This format usually indicates a piece that works either as background or as stand alone, but unfortunately it fails to deliver on both fronts. From the opening sample/feedback combination to the sluggish, piecemeal end, this collaborative effort never seems to reach full potential.
Indeed the sheer lack of originality is surprising given the artists involved. Bardoseneticcube describe their music as “surrealism,” while Noises of Russia’s work is a “sound canvas complicated with visual and verbal images” (both quoted from band websites). Throughout there is an overwhelming feeling of a quota to fill – choirs, babies crying, etc. – and each is overused to the point of tedium. These elements often repeatedly filter in and out amid intermittent and badly timed bursts of feedback, with any vaguely interesting samples quickly becoming an irritating addition to the melee. With reference to the earlier quote from NOR’s website, this actually felt more than once as if it was the soundtrack to an experimental film, as it seems jumpy and often out of sorts with itself. At turns it seems to be trying to alienate its audience with ear piercing feedback, then to draw the listener in with the much repeated choral motifs, but the balance is uneven and the overall product ill-arranged and unfocused.
With nothing to redeem it whatsoever, bar an amusing sample that through its ubiquitous reuse comes to resemble nothing so much as a metallic sneeze, I have given this unsatisfactory offering minimal points.
[2/10]
— Catherine C.