Tone Dialing, argues Ornette Coleman, is the art of connecting with
something in the audience –and Raster-Norton does their best to dial
into the remote icy regions of the soul and keep themselves there. Many
of Raster’s earlier releases were so mechanical their sheer brutism
came as respite from music’s usual attempts to pander to pleasure. As
likely to be found in art galleries as clubs, Raster-Norton’s manifest
product is sonic alienation. But as A1.1 proves, holes have begun to
tatter through in their uniforms.
Raster-Norton’s HQ is infiltrated by good vibes. While the first 5
tracks present the never rough, but amazingly cold side of their
earlier output, Boghossian’s “Memoire Cyclique” is a startlingly piece of
stereo-panning elegance. Modul’s “Shift II” turns the formal side of the
Raster sound into an adorable and sweet song. Lima’s version is kinda
drum’n bassy, daring to actually play on your emotions. Cyclo’s “C7”
returns to the usual Raster motif of test patterns and clicks, and as
usual is more than just an experiment, but a fully formed song that its
stiff formal outlines somehow engages. Pixel’s “Auslaufrille II” is the
weakest here, but interestingly the most kindly, the most accessible,
and because of this –the most generic. Some saving graces come into
Pixel’s 10 minute epic later on, but not enough to save a sinking idea.
Noto, one of the label’s founders, dares to produce an almost romantic
vision of CD skipping, dubbing it out, giving one little moment of
human melody into a frozen world, and then ending out on an almost
funky tech-house vibe. William Basinski’s “River II” is just a microtonal processed field
recording thing that doesn’t quite work too well and could have been ommited, closing off this compilation disc.
Raster-Norton’s formal ability to follow the rules of music to the
point of making an aesthetic of math has always been amazing, but A 1.1
shows that their clinical experiments sometimes find emotion too.
A 1.1 is out now on Rastor-Norton/Asphodel.
