Miguel A. García & Mikel Vega
Explets
SPAIN CRYSTALMINE CASSETTE (2023)
Nifty tape of improvised abstract noise from two Basque guys…the Crystal Mine label of Burgos is dedicated to an “anti-copyright” stance regarding its releases, not unlike other Spaniard extremists such as Nueni Recs and Mattin, so you needn’t feel remotely guilty if you stream this now sold-out cassette using your digital tongs, and store it in your digital fruit-basket.
Not to sound boastful, but I’ve probably heard more records than García than anyone in the UK, and while I’ve yet to hear him dip the wrong claw in the viscous sap of Malarian botany, I’ve noted a general trend away from his snarling, rasping attacks of 2012 in favour of a more benign, floaty bombardment of Xenon gas released from above. Here, he’s using his set-up (hopefully a mixing desk made from a converted washing machine with spare parts from a 1930s railroad engine) to generate his own crunchy cough syrup as well as “reinterpreting” the guitar work of Mikel Vega, doing so in real time. This isn’t quite as exciting or radical, results-wise, as you might think, although some of the sudden drop-outs and false endings evinced on these fretful meetings do have a certain shock-mode value. Vega is a heavyweight of the biomorph-action stun guitar and ready to take on all comers when he’s in stoner-noise rock mode, such as in the Killerkume group, but also caused half the Western world to go on automatic reset when that Black Earth cassette came out in 2016. More recently we savoured every mouthful of his Powndak Improv solo tape like a ripe mango in high season. Here on Explets he appears to have donned the tweed jacket and trilby hat to engage in a more “conversational” mode of music, but he still throws out some tasty reverbed nuggets of grilled pork from the burners.
Me, I’d have enjoyed a few more obnoxious noise moments on this tape, but still find the bewilderment-puzzlo mode of the music a pleasing and acceptable method of transporting myself to the audio garden of iron flowers. Cover art painting by Asier G. Azkue seems to be a lurid rethinking of Giger’s designs from the first Alien movie; the title Explets reads like an attempt to render the horrifying shriek of that alien into intelligible speech. (03/10/2023)