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Foxy Digitalis:
Sunken brings us a droning garden of aquatic delights courtesy of a pair of pump organs, sonar equipment and tape loops manned by Antony Milton and Stafan Neville (also known as Pumice). The instrumentation alone really lends itself to the tonalities of dirge-like artificial respiration as you get the feeling of your self contained underwater breathing aparatus pumping away with its artificial devices whirring and clicking in your watery isolation.
The first and longest track opens with a swirling hazy grind of organs with the occasional interjected tones, as if sounding the depths, and builds into elegantly phrased contrapuntal lines which at times teeter on the brink of a squall of white noise. Eventually, through a segment of sputtering delay manipulations the piece approaches an almost thematic melody which is supplemented by the faint vocals that burble up in the mix. The third movement closes with a bit of mammalian telepathy as the distant chirps and whistles of the "seacow" segment attempt to make contact with the meandering electric guitar explorations.
This oceanic theme continues throughout the album over the course of its three tracks with really beautiful interplay between the mechanically respiratory sounds of the instruments and their more traditionally melodic capabilities. As it closes with a sort of broken Kaliope and guitar duo you surface, eagerly awaiting the next voyage. 9/10 -- Kevin Richards (11 March, 2008)
BRIAN FROM NORMAN RECORDS (UK) WROTE THUS:
Having visited the glorious country of New Zealand I was able to relish the deep tranquility & otherworldliness of the place for almost a month, a treasured experience I can tell thee! I can understand the Kiwi take on the ambient/drone/noise genre a lot greater now (many pioneers of the scene hail from this remote part of the world, no doubt influenced by their spacious & desolate surroundings & close proximity to wondrous natural habitat of all kinds. Sunken are from those isles and make a soothing racket that veers from fuzzy, warm noise to space invaders taking accordion lessons! Forward into cyclic loops that are overlaid with a sinister wall of creaking, malevolent sounds and lo-fi distortion, like a radio being tuned by a extra terrestrial monster with a passion for post-industrial static manipulations. Then the (tuneful & drifting) accordions creep in again! On the last piece you get treated to some wild, meandering free psych guitar played by a space octopus on shark-crack. Sounds like the corpse of Jimi, mutated into a squalling mind shagger from Mars. This is the sound of the underground indeed. 3 tracks that take you underwater & then up into a woozy place in the heavens! ’Eye Electric Organ’ is a great little CD, constructed with a fair amount of love. I’m always curious about drone music & this is a sweet addition to anyone’s collection. Like a more lo-fi Growing perhaps or for anyone curious about the new generation of New Zealand’s ambient spacedrone producers!
AND AQUARIUS RECORDS THUS:
SUNKEN Eye Electric Organ, Brain Electric Nerve (PseudoArcana) cd-r 14.98
Yet another collection of haunting and gorgeous dronemusic from Antony Milton, who in addition recording as Sunken with Stefan Neville, plays in the Stumps, Mrtyu, The Nether Dawn and about a million others, PLUS he runs the PseudoArcana label, and we think he might even have a real job as well. Not sure how he does it, we’re just glad he does.
So as we mentioned above, Sunken is Milton and his pal Neville who also records as Pumice. In Sunken, the two mainly play organs, reed and Hammond, but the two also make sounds with intercoms, tapes, delay pedals, guitars and of course vocals. But the organs are what Sunken is all about, and the sound is awesomely fuzzy, simultaneously lo-fi and lush. The opening track is 30 minutes long and throughout organs whir and wheeze, the sounds they produce so rich and textured, so fuzzy and buzzy and imperfect, the tones crumbling and shifting, the chords wavering and warbly, long drawn out melodies, that sound sort of drunken or seasick, thick tangled layers of sounds, heaving and whirring and churning out long Niblockian drones, but not nearly as static. It almost sounds like obscure NZ outfit Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos covering the Dead C. A sort of droned out free rock, rendered in quavering organ tones and hissy fuzzy warble. Here and there, the tracks splinter apart briefly offering up some skittering electronic glitchery, some analog stutter and skip, before slipping right back into that woozy mesmer.
The second track is a bit more abrasive, what sounds like guitar is strummed into a field of blurred high end buzz and shimmer, but within, tones materialize, bits of percussive whatsits thump and creak, all manner of sonic detritus drifts by, always surrounded by a cloud of organ and guitar whir. And boy does this track remind us of Wreck Small Speakers, which in case we didn’t make it obvious already is most definitely a good thing.
The record finishes off with a little lullaby outro, some sweet swoonsome organ, over the top some distorted minor key guitar, the perfect warm and warbly finish...
5:32 AM
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