(July 2009) Here’s one that I’ve put off trying to write about because I’m just not that taken with it. The Bureau of Nonstandards is a duo, Kevin C. Smith (who modifies old electronics into his own “circuit-bent” instruments) and Maurice Rickard, who processes Kevin’s sounds on a laptop. So this has the potential to map out the area where Wolf Eyes meets Jim O’Rourke. Exciting, right? Unfortunately, they instead channel early Throbbing Gristle through a haze of mid-90s glitch and late-period Autechre. Still sound exciting? There are 500,000 Myspace pages with electronic artists all trying to do that, and this album does not make a case for itself as standing out from that crowd. This is hardly innovative or even interesting stuff, but the major crime in my eyes: one of their main sound sources on this record is a Speak ‘n’ Spell. And while, in my “musician” days I was just as guilty of sampling one, I did it in 1995, not 2009. And it was cliche when I did it, so shame on Kevin and Maurice for trying to get away with it now.
I don’t want to rag on these guys for something that I’m also guilty of, so I’ll drop it, but it had to be noted. So what you get here is 15 tracks, about 47 minutes, of warped noise, glitch beats and bass rumbles, chuttering synths (maybe they’re synths, who knows?) and an aggressive disdain for melody and rhythm. And where that can work sometimes (see Creamy Water Quiz review), this music is, if nothing else, trying to hard to keep you out.
Repellent in nature and barely choate in production, The Bureau of Nonstandards need to apply some standards to their songwriting and production. And while from inside the rooms where this was created, it may be full of life and joy and fun, from the outside it feels like a bee stuck between a window and a screen – it buzzes angrily for hours and then suddenly stops. And when that happens, you feel relief.
The Bureau of Nonstandards is out now on OneZero.
