[Genteel Death]

Adam, I have listened to your new record over and over yestarday and today. I'm sorry, I don't like it at all. Will pm you proper.

[atsonicpark]

Haha well that's fine, no need to apologize. I can see it rubbing people the wrong way. The thing is, I've been doing this Robe. thing for a while now, in the studio recording recently... and we just did our very finest album in my opinion (the very, very horn-heavy Night Terror, out soon...); I'm in both bands because I like the idea that I can do two projects that are complete opposites, allowing me to be creative in completely different ways. Anyway, after playing slooooooooow drone for months and months, I had to do a spastic, fast, ridiculous, chopped up album. Now that it's out of my system, I will probably do Robe. exclusively for another year.

This album was very cathartic for me, it's also the first SS album I've done completely solo in a long time. I know it's not something for everyone, as it's probably a bit ridiculous, but that's the point. I was proud that I finally got the title track recorded though, that was hell. Thousands of overdubs on that album. Just lots of work. No sequencers or anything, I dropped all the beats and various sounds in one sample at a time (though a lot of the percussion and such is played on pots and pans and manipulated). So, manipulating all these little microseconds... it was a lot of work.

Thanks for listening, either way. It's, overall, gotten a wonderful reception, I'm proud of it but I don't ever want to listen to it again, or make any albums like it again. I'm just trying to do something different with each album, and not all experiments can be successful, at least not to everyone.

...I am thinking of doing a new solo project, mostly based around some acoustic Middle Eastern-sounding stuff I've been working on for a while. I'd probably just release it under my own name. Also, when I've had time, I've been recording some surf stuff with my friend, for a band called THE DEATH POWDERS; but that stuff won't see the light of day for a while, since movies and animation are my main passions... also, re-mixing some of that Robe. studio stuff... we're also slowly planning a new tour too..... plus, personal stuff, so I'm always quite busy.

[Glice]

I think the thing with the latest SS stuff is that you can really hear the delicacies of the production - previously it's always felt a bit discontinuous and jumping from idea to idea, rather than the over-dubbing effect on this one. It's not quite segues, but there's more of a sense of lines overlapping on this one, which makes it a lot more interesting to listen to (for me).

I'd be really interested to hear you doing a solo record. Something else that came out of this record, on Sunset dream of codeine eyeball and elsewhere, was that you can hear you actually playing an instrument, rather than using it as a means to an end. I don't have a problem with people making a virtue of not being able to play an instrument brilliantly. I hope Mr Death doesn't mind me saying that his music works really well in spite of not being a virtuoso on his instruments. But yeah, I've never really got the sense with any of your music that you can actually play any instruments - it's always seemed more like objects that make a sound rather than instruments you can play, if that makes sense?

Yes, solo acoustic record please.

[Genteel Death]

Pretty much what Glice said above. Production-wise is excellent. It left me feeling like you should combine all these ideas (and there are some excellent ones scattered all over this record) into more structured songs.

[shabbray2.0]

have had a few listens no on the new one. first of all, thanks for sharing it adam!

I really enjoyed it. its definately schizophrenic, a lot of thinny piercing percussions, which knock you around (I listened to it while buying food at the grocery store, the last time, I forgot multiple times where I wanted to go to grab some ???).
I enjoyed those moments where anything calmes down and these overclean pads arise, just to be ripped apart shortly afterwards.
also good enjoyable length.

btw is this a soloproject from you or are you and a few guys actually performin this?

[Derek]

It's just Adam by himself I'm sure.

[shabbray2.0]

it sounds that way, I agree.
it sounds like adam after listening to a lot of cpt. beefheart while feeling like venetian snares, hahaha

[atsonicpark]

yeah it's just me. I've had people playing on the past few cd's.

I appreciate the compliments/critiques/etc. Thanks for listening, at all, this is definitely just a step in a new direction..

[atsonicpark]

Originally Posted by Glice

I've never really got the sense with any of your music that you can actually play any instruments

Actually, Glice, that's something I'm always curious about -- if people actually think I have musical ability at all... because I've had my stuff reviewed in the past, by noise zines/blogs, and they always make it a note to call my stuff "talent heavy" or to say that I seem to be a good musician. But elsewhere, a lot of people write it off as random bleeps and bloops; one review called my stuff "random improv" (there's never been any improvisation on a Scissor Shock album, btw)...

But, Glice, since you actually listen to really talented composers and stuff, I was curious if you would consider me a good musician, based on what you've heard on this album. I don't really know how to play trumpets, trombones, saxophones, xylophone, or marimba very well, but I think I did a good job getting some cool sounds out of 'em. The song that took the longest to make was track 9, KNIFE IN THE HEAD OF ALL FALSE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS. That one took hours to make because I kept fucking up. But it's my favorite track, probably; I think the organ in the right speaker is really nice.

My favorite part is the dj scratches on the title track. These aren't samples, I really did scratch, haha.

But yeah, I've always really wanted someone who actually knows a little about music theory to listen and deconstruct what I'm doing and stuff, so I appreciate the thoughtful responses, Glice. Usually my reviews range from "A RANDOM COLLECTION OF STUFF TO LISTEN TO WHILE ON ACID" or "SOME GUY FUCKING AROUND WITH FRUITY LOOPS" (which I've never programmed a whole song on, period).

Anyway my favorite praise is on the rateyourmusic... that chumlum guy... he ran the avant-prog group on last.fm, and he has never been into my work but he heard this album and he said it was one of the coolest albums he'd ever heard. I let another methhead dude who never got into my work (but loves my movies) and he said it was his favorite too. The praise has really made me genuinely happy; I think I am capable of doing better, but I think this is definitely an important stepping stone, for making more music in the future.

Like I said, I have written a few acoustic songs with my girlfriend, she is an AMAZING cello and piano player, and is huge into Harry Partch, Xenakis, and stuff. She's a much better musician than I am. So, I think for the next full length Scissor shock album -- which won't be around for a while or anything, but I think I'm going to make a slower, more classical inspired album, no drum samples at all... all junk percussion/pots and pans.

Oh, btw, if anyone was wondering, the stuff on the album like "WHERE'S THE KITTY?" and "QUIT PICKING YOUR NOSE! THERE'S NO GOLD IN THERE!" is my mom.

Anyway, look for some new, absolutely insane Robe. stuff soon...........

[atsonicpark]

 

[Glice]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

But yeah, I've always really wanted someone who actually knows a little about music theory to listen and deconstruct what I'm doing and stuff, so I appreciate the thoughtful responses, Glice. Usually my reviews range from "A RANDOM COLLECTION OF STUFF TO LISTEN TO WHILE ON ACID" or "SOME GUY FUCKING AROUND WITH FRUITY LOOPS" (which I've never programmed a whole song on, period).

I can't emphasise enough that I don't think 'virtuosity' is the virtue it seems (ha). There's plenty of instances of composers not being able to play the music they wrote (Bartok/ Stravinsky's piano music, lots of Cage pieces etc) and there's plenty of people who make a virtues of their lack of 'chops' (Scelsi, arguably la Monte Young etc). With most of the SS stuff I've heard before, there's a sense of moving so quickly between ideas, and that it doesn't sound like it's designed to be 'live', that it doesn't really matter if you can play it. You could have the most complicated solo imaginable, but because it's so production heavy, you could just as easily have recorded it one note at a time; because there's often not much of a sense of an explicit pulse or rhythm (the songs tend to hold together by their own logic), recording something piecemeal would work just as well.

I recorded some classical music on acoustic guitar a while ago (which I haven't quite got around to getting mastered). For whatever reason I ended up getting red light fever, so I had to record the pieces in chunks of 10-15 bars. Odd, as I've not had a problem playing the pieces live, but unfortunately red light fever tends to hit me harder with prepared stuff. It was surprising how easy it was to cut the pieces together to give the impression of continuity though (and one of the pieces is about 12 minutes long).

Yeah, basically, I don't think you need to worry about playing 'well' - the only thing with that is that the nature of SS is that it's going to take quite an intense listen to get the sense that these are heavily-structured and well-played which, unfortunately, most listeners aren't going to do.

Also, I'm going to have to say again that I am entirely self-taught on theory, so I'm by no means anything like an expert. I'd happily accept the title of gobshite though.

[atsonicpark]

Interesting response, and very Glice-like.

For the record, I do play most of the songs straight through, and like you said, kinda holding them together by my own logic. But there are tons of overdubs, since I'm playing all the instruments.

[atsonicpark]

first review of PSYCHIC EXISTENTIALISM:

how do you introduce an act that changes so much on every single album? i didn't understand scissor shock for a long time, as they really require the new listener puts in some serious research. their past records have varied from insanely sped-up bursts of pure one million BPM insanity all the way to a beefheart-tinged deconstruction of music that you could attempt to categorise, and fail miserably - this is not punk, noise, jazz, or musique concrete, and it's definitely not 'midigrind' either - the name given to the so-called scene that this act emerged from, but have always had very little to do with stylistically. what this is, at least to me, is the sound of music destroying itself. there are real songs here, but they are heavily filtered through all out ugliness and constantly disorientated by apparently random bursts of chance dissonance. for fans of early mothers of invention and secret chiefs 3, this on occasion sounds like those equally bizarre projects, but easily ten thousand times more intense than anything they've ever done... this makes its logical predecessors look like easy listening. all i can really categorise this as is... pure dada. --Weary Indie Hannah

[atsonicpark]

in general, I think the reviews are often more interesting than the band itself!:
http://scissorshock.angelfire.com/reviews.html

[atsonicpark]

Some guy is OBSESSED with the new album and he started a last.fm group... http://www.last.fm/group/Scissor+Shock ... 3 reviews for the album:


how do you introduce an act that changes so much on every single album? i didn't understand scissor shock for a long time, as they really require the new listener puts in some serious research. their past records have varied from insanely sped-up bursts of pure one million BPM insanity all the way to a beefheart-tinged deconstruction of music that you could attempt to categorise, and fail miserably - this is not punk, noise, jazz, or musique concrete, and it's definitely not 'midigrind' either - the name given to the so-called scene that this act emerged from, but have always had very little to do with stylistically. what this is, at least to me, is the sound of music destroying itself. there are real songs here, but they are heavily filtered through all out ugliness and constantly disorientated by apparently random bursts of chance dissonance. for fans of early mothers of invention and secret chiefs 3, this on occasion sounds like those equally bizarre projects, but easily ten thousand times more intense than anything they've ever done... this makes its logical predecessors look like easy listening. all i can really categorise this as is... pure dada. --Weary Indie Hannah, I'M ONE OF AN ODD FAMILY ZINE

---------------

Really weird review at http://wtfmusicorg.blogspot.com/2010...entialism.html that is very scientific...

------------
hilarious new rym review:
This is the album that brings Scissor Shock up with the masters. I have just as much respect for Scissor Shock as I do for bands like Captain Beefheart/The Magic Band, Naked City, the Sun City Girls, Henry Cow, Mr. Bungle, whoever. Those might be some big names, and you might say an independent artist such as Adam Cooley couldn't possibly make an album that stands up there with big names like the ones I just dropped.... but here it is.

This album throws so many insane sounds at you constantly, all the while retaining an insane amount of complexity. Think Mr. Bungle's genre-jumping filtered through ultra-technical Hella-esque time signature changes and then sped up x 9000. There's so much different stuff in here, it's insane.

This album is better than your favorite album.

Anyone who overlooks this just because it is a very independent or online release, then you're missing out on some of the best music ever. This album is definitely not getting the recognition it deserves. All of you people just FUCKING SUCK. Scissor Shock is one of the best things currently happening in music.

I'll definitely get the CD-r when it comes out! The album artwork is fucking classic.

...............


The response has been so overwhelmingly great. I am so flattered. I wasn't expecting people to like it this much. It comes out this week or next through for noise's sake officially. THanks again, everyone!

[stu666]

i joined

[atsonicpark]

True story: The best review I got was a pitchfork editor randomly sent me an email. I'm not even joking. I don't know the guy at all. Anyway, he said he heard it, and said it was in his top 10 of the year, said he's been a big fan forever, but he said since it is such a limited-run album, he can't review it... he said I need to get a bigger label to put out a bigger run to get P4k to cover it at all. He said maybe they'll do a top 10 list of the year and he'll mention it. He said he's played it for a few other p4k editors. I thought that was so incredibly cool of the guy to send me that...(also kinda heartbreaking in a way, but eh)

[TheFoxBen]

If Scissor Shock go all pitchfork, I will listen to it ahahah

[Glice]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

True story: The best review I got was a pitchfork editor randomly sent me an email. I'm not even joking. I don't know the guy at all. Anyway, he said he heard it, and said it was in his top 10 of the year, said he's been a big fan forever, but he said since it is such a limited-run album, he can't review it... he said I need to get a bigger label to put out a bigger run to get P4k to cover it at all. He said maybe they'll do a top 10 list of the year and he'll mention it. He said he's played it for a few other p4k editors. I thought that was so incredibly cool of the guy to send me that...(also kinda heartbreaking in a way, but eh)

E-mail him back saying "FIND ME A LABEL THEN YOU TRAIN O' CUNT".

[atsonicpark]

haha.

Anyway, seriously folks, this new album will officially be out either this week or next. I got rid of all my copies to local music stores and whatnot. So there'll be like 40 left.