Tools

Headphone Commute Review

     

Opening a little small black cardboard packet I am greeted with a warning - "please do not use headphones for playback". With this a bit unusual packaging for 12k, I choose to follow the advice - the last time my brain caught a null pointer exception was when I accidentally used headphones for Florian Hecker's Acid In The Style Of David Tudor - not recommended. Meanwhile, Giuseppe Ielasi's 2009 album, Aix was covered on Headphone Commute and featured in Best of 2009 : Music For Sonic Installations In The Cavern Of Your Skull. So, my curiosity is already awake. On Tools, Ielasi takes the study into the physicality of everyday objects even further. Each track is titled after the object from which the sounds were made - "Cooking Pan", "Tin Can", "Polystyrene Box" - each a simple every day object, with a basic material from which it was made. The collection of seven pieces nods to material produced strictly for sampling or live performance by artists and DJs - Tools is kit of items that's meant to achieve a task without being consumed in the process. The process, however, is the result of this experimental 20-minute EP. Synthetically folding cooking pan, like a sheet of metal, Ielasi extracts the objects interaction with air pressure. My favorite, of course, is a Rubber Band - who hasn't played with this amazing instrument in school, and now in many boring meetings? With a little help from his computer, Ielasi manages to create a rhythmic structure, where the band becomes a percussion instrument, taking a musical life of its own. Other tracks resemble a production factory on which machines work with the beat in time with the late night warehouse techno tempo. The release may be a bit tough for a novice listener, but it is surely recommended for an experienced traveler into an array of sounds.