artist: Various title: 'Vol. A' & 'Vol. B' format: CD label: Zelphabet Zelphabet: www.zelphabet.com review: J. Hamilton

With these two discs, G.X.Jupitter-Larsen (The Haters) launches his epic 26-volume encyclopedia of noise. Jupitter-Larsen has been at his work a long time, and has mined his no doubt equally encyclopedic address book for a diverse mix of veteran and new talents from around the world.
Vol. A consists of pieces by underground heavyweights Achim Wollscheid, AMK, Arcane Device and Asmus Tietchens, a lineup that just reeks of class. And that's exactly what you get: Wollscheid's '3 Transformations for Xylophone' has a title that says it all - the tinklings of a small toy xylophone sent in various spatial and temporal directions by what may be a Max/MSP patch. I was prepared to be irritated by this piece, but it's actually a lot of fun. AMK turns in a dark, dense sound collage seemingly made from stuttering vinyl, with the clicks and scratches mixed to the fore. David Lee Myers resuscitates Arcane Device by remixing six years' worth of material into a typically dynamic slab of electroacoustic tension that recalls the classic 60's work of his sometime collaborator Tod Dockstader. Rounding off the disc, Asmus Tietchens juxtaposes mysterious, clicking, hiccuping goings on with distant, oceanic humming. Four great pieces, one convenient disc.
Vol. B brings us mostly younger artists. The Beast People (who include in their ranks Aaron Dilloway and Nate Young) turn in a strange mix of primitive vocalisations and stark tape echo, creating the sort of odd, perverse atmosphere rarely heard since obscure mid-80's artists like Noizeclot put away their microphones for good. 16 Bitch Pileup seem to be recorded live here, a 15-minute morass of feedback, distorted screaming and disordered percussion, all muffled as if heard through a few layers of duct tape, which goes on maybe a little too long and is the only weak piece on the disc. Blackhumour's 'and do what/control' is one of his typically masterful collages of human voice and nothing else, text fragments that lose all signification the longer they go on, becoming so hypnotic that the end of the piece is quite a startling event. The last piece is by Bob Bellerue, who is also behind the excellent Redglaer. 'Fridge Tower' is a swarming mass of wriggling electronic frequencies that builds into fairly dense peaks without ever approaching harshness, all sorts of tactile surfaces building into a fairly tonal finale.
These two discs get this ambitious project off to a very strong start. Upcoming volumes will include contributions by the likes of Chop Shop, Daniel Menche, Francisco Lopez, Giancarlo Toniutti, Incapacitants, John Duncan, The Legendary Pink Dots, The New Blockaders and Small Cruel Party, many of whom rarely contribute to compilations these days. The lineup looks easily good enough to justify subscribing to the series, which one can do at www.zelphabet.com.

'Vol. B'