Negativland :: Speech Free (Seeland)

Multitasking has ruined listening to albums at home in the woods. But this album can restore that experience. It is just as good to listen to in complete darkness, late at night, as an episode of Over the Edge. I hope to experience further instrumental excursions from the band, now that they have decided to shut up and play their instruments.

A perfect marriage of noise, melody, and manipulated media

When people think of Negativland it is often their expert use of chopped up vocal samples from across the mediasphere that come to mind first. Yes, they make music, but they also jam the culture with critical commentary made from the refracted shards of the same voices they so often critique.

One of the great things about this record, is how much appreciation for the music itself is brought out with attentive listening. There are as many details going on without the words to pay attention to, and this allows us to do so. Granted, I always loved the music as well as the words. It has always been a perfect marriage of noise, melody, and manipulated media, but so much of Negativland’s work involves heavy voice sampling, that sometimes a deep appreciation of their collective musical acumen gets lost in the message. When I give this record my full ears and focused attention, I am rewarded with all the details, details, details. There are tons of them. So much is going on.

The music on Speech Free comes from the instrumental portions of their two previous albums, True False and the World Will Decide. Here they are reimagined without all the troublesome speech. Listening to these versions, I appreciate them anew for all the care and attention that went into crafting them.

What would really be cool is if Negativland also released an album of Just Speech, Just the Words, or something along those lines. If they put up the stems or a sample library of all the words they cut and clipped for the last two records, then Negafans could then go in and make their own remixes of the songs. We could make our own critiques using just the words and layering them over this music in a new way. Of course, we could just put our own samples over top, there are plenty to choose from after all, and editing audio snippets has become even more accessible than it was with tape cassettes. But they really don’t need to do this, because sometimes, we just want things to be speech free anyway. One of the only ways to escape the noise, is to cocoon yourself in noise.

Everything was saved, and nothing was destroyed ::

But the perfect instrumental cuts across the three CD’s, vinyl, or long digital playlist here, aren’t just noise. This should or could earn them new fans from the legions of people who now enjoy electronic music as a daily part of life. If your tastes run in the wobbly direction of Matmos, Thomas Dimuzio, or even the Prairie Prince, you’ve come to the right place as they and others contributions are littered across this epic long player. So long known as only a collective, Negativland have finally become a band. And not just any band. But an instrumental prog band. Well, not really, but there are moments when the intricate compositions will wrack your mind with their contemporary counterpoint.

Bass, guitar, drums, its all here. Even keyboards I suppose, and all blended into as fine of an amalgam as anywhere. Everything was saved, and nothing was destroyed.

Fans of the genre of library music will also be happy. This music you want in your library of library music. There are 28 tracks in total, and for the most part are all longer than your average classic punk song. But they pack as much of a wallop. The menace of “What Is the Problem?” is a case in point. There is an unhinged glee, a sense of wonder that has been choked by the simulacra of an ever present corporate surveillance system. This is the soundtrack. Or something like that. But maybe it’s my mental framing that creates the problem. Sometimes it is hard to tell.

“No one will know what the original critical texts on these tracks once were—though those messages remain, and might even be amplified, once replaced with new sales pitches of your own design. Because every second of Usable Music™ on this record has been precisely designed and personally guaranteed, by everyone still here in Negativland, to be: Speech Free.”

People may wonder also, where all the jammed culture is to be found. But know this. It does come with an insert, or downloadable PDF that contains all the voice parts that were removed for the completist collector. I suggest reading this text while listening, rather than news on the internet, if you are going to have to pay attention to something else while listening.

Multitasking has ruined listening to albums at home in the woods. But this album can restore that experience. It is just as good to listen to in complete darkness, late at night, as an episode of Over the Edge. I hope to experience further instrumental excursions from the band, now that they have decided to shut up and play their instruments.

Favorite tracks for me include, “No Wonder,” “Tape the Pain In Place,” “Loop Forever” and “Just Ship It.” Subtitled, Recorded Music For Film, Radio, Internet and Television, there is sure to be something here to fit every mood and moment as you recontextualize your own experience based on exposure to this glistening music. You want the whole package, not just the chopped up bits.

Speech Free is available on Bandcamp.