from other views of the Percussionist
"Now that's what I call 'kickin' some ass' on them drums!" - Johnnie Johnson / The Father of Rock & Roll
"VERY COOL! Just what gear do you use?" - Foetus
"...very tranquil, beautiful, and meditative" - Marc Caro - co-director of "City of Lost Children" & "Delicatessen"
"SPIKE delivers a throbbing, powerful beat, the Keith Moon of Industrial?" -Jeff Boyle Electrozine/COP Int'l
Astrogenic Hallucinauting - Radon Scan Cycle CDR on Solipsism - www.selfabuserecords.net/home.html
This has got to be some of the best non harsh noise I have heard in a long time. I mean, if noise had to be music, it would have to sound like this, beautiful revolting, sinister, but kind, simplistic, and deep with an atmosphere that heightens the senses and contracts the muscles, this is an audio massage that you will not easily forget nor will you be so eager for it to end. Subtly changing in tone and octave, the sound just billows from the speakers like the chemicals at a plant's smoke stacks, causing the same unseen contamination of all it comes in contact with and ten times as alluring. Arresting your attention like a wet dream that smothers you in pleasure and drastically improves your ability to perform and perform well! The entire one long track seems to better itself minute by gloomy minute, entering a gradual increase of volume and intensity that is sure to please you and perturb the neighbors. Do you enjoy Halloween? Then you actually need this recording piped into your ears played at ten walking through the Sleepy Hollow woods with a sign strapped to your front and back touting that you aren't leaving until you witness a beheading. Enjoy this to the fullest by playing at unnecessary volumes.
By Joe Lombardo
Astrogenic Hallucinauting - Binary Noiz Series 00
"Binary Noize 00" is the first cd in the Binary Noize Series of 3" CDR's
(each containing 3 tracks running about 20 minutes in length) from SPIKE
the Percussionist and his project Astrogenic Hallucinauting. The first
track "So-Flow" is quite rhythmic, mixing in some robotic voice samples
and lazer effects which sound like they were pulled off the soundboard
of Centipede. Nothing too extradinary but competent nonetheless. The following
track "corridor" is much darker, making use of some echoed percussion
and little burst of white noise here and there to create a dark soundtrack
feel. "Corridor" would be the perfect soundtrack to a night of Quake.
The final track "Level Erase Dredge" works the power-electronics angle
with distorted drums and twisted audio frequencies into loud waves of
sound. I'd love to see the direction the music would take during the course
of an entire album because from these 3 distinctively different sounding
tracks i'd have no clue with what was coming next from SPIKE.
Astrogenic Hallucinauting - Binary Noiz Series 01
Here we have the second installment in the Binary Noize series simply
entitled "01." Starting pretty much where "00" left off, the first track
"Unknown Variable Shifting" returns to echoed percussion, robotic voices
and what sounds to me like a game of missle command gone horrible wrong.
"Indirrect Addressing" is quite disturbing and is sure to leave me with
nightmares of alien abduction. The sounds of "Indirrect Addressing" takes
my thoughts into the inner chamber of an alient craft, where little grey
men run around and set up machines of human torture. The third and final
track "AudC," isn't quite up to the standards I've come to expect from
Spike's work and was a bit disappointing. Especially after hearing the
earlier tracks on the disc. Nevertheless, the low-fi sounds of Spike's
work is quite good and just shows that's it's not that amount of gear
you use but how you use it.
By GunHed @ wetworksezine.com
SPIKE the Percussionist - Astrogenic Hallucinauting
My first exploration comes after a 2.9 mile run. Night. I've got plenty
of stuff on my plate that needs to get done but I'lll do this first.
I kept the site up on a tab in my browser all day so I wouldn't forget.
Might as well roll out.
Drag the laptop to the papasan, prop my feet up on the arm of the couch.
Great view of the street at night. Nothing out there, just dark. Lamp
on. Plant in corner still alive. So are the dogs. I don't know where
the hell this stuff comes from.
"Onto The Next Wire." - Well, metallic, deep, thick. Like a large pipe
with a decent charge running through it. Cold. Steel. Filled with liquid.
Communicating or picking up signals from a satellite, or tapping into
your neighbors hacked cable signal. Almost like you're hearing something
you weren't meant to hear, like a new sense or gaining the ability to
hear beyond the normal human range. Then a bit of a freak-out, an alarm
that rolls, fades into the distance. More of a space or a statement
than a tune, per-se.
There's one track down. I hit ctrl+s and the stupid save sound from
Microsoft Word blasts through my headphones.
See, this is why I demand a CD or reviews. I made a rule. no reviews
from tunes found on websites. And here I am breaking my rule, and complaining
about it in the middle of a review. What a dick.
"So Flow" - Sounds like a pulsing didgeridoo sample for the foundation
of the piece, jagged, brittle, stern. A video game laser assault. Not
an ounce of soul. Frosty, dry, sterile, thick. An electrographic workout,
post-apocalyptic, static, buzz-saw jam. Damn, I just don't know. I've
got an expectation when I think of Astrogenic Hallucinauting. My cover-judging
expectation is that I'll be voyaging through the stars, hitting some
brave new worlds, etc. This is darker, with a healthy shot of hard-nosed
industrial intent for effect. Grind to kill rather than a flowery hippy
voyage through the cosmos.
"AudC" - Downright painful. Seriously. There's a song out there, up
tempo, fuzzed out and treble-jacked beyond belief, with a brief dip
into a bass roll that frankly makes for quite an appealing piece. Sounds
like some old-school Asteroids sound effects, maybe the explosion sound
from Space Invaders. Lossy-frenetic with an eerie, almost imperceptible
sense of space. I'm using AKG K240DF ear goggles to scope this scene
and I've gotta say that there are parts of this piece that hurt my ears.
Almost as if the thick vibra-treble effect is tearing my eardrums to
shreds. Don't think I've ever experienced that before. Well, pain. And
it's my favorite so far. Pause. It is becoming apparent that Astrogenic
Hallucinauting is perhaps a worthwhile trek. One must sure as hell go
in with an open mind. Alright. Continue.
"Ree-Tox" - Like a slow-motion heart attack. Big. Limited to highs and
mids, not much on the bass end. A suspended, up-there'd-ness. Pulsing,
slow and unnaturally steady. Suspended a thousand miles above the North
Pole during an aurora, without a space suit, the instant of your death
casually drawn out for a few minutes. Remember. the universe is eternal
and it's got all day. You're but a proton, friend. A sonic ass-kicking.
A gritty, rigid, thorough, ass-kicking. I wonder if ass-kicking is supposed
to be hyphenated.
"Free Possession" - Let's pretend that the higher power that holds sway
over this neck of existence is an almighty vengeful hombre with a keen
sense of tragic wit, and decides to settle up with you karma-wise after
you've had an exceptionally bad day. One morning you wake up as a sentient,
feeling, hunk of reinforced sheet iron that forms part of the wall of
a boiler that powers a turbine on a large ocean-going vessel. Your world
is suddenly quite hot and extremely painful.
On the whole I'd say I'd have to place it somewhere out on the experimental
edge of the industrial ambient spectrum. Interesting stuff.
By Art Grauer @ The Cosmic
Spot
Tracklisting: 1. So-flow, 2. Corridor, 3. Level erase dredge
I have no idea who Astrogenic Hallucinauting are or come from, but here are 3 tracks on a 19 minute long 3" CDR, allegedly composed only with sounds recorded from video games, either on arcade machines or computers. The sounds are however heavily treated and run through effects, since you really coudn't recognize them.
The first track is the most rhythmic of the three, alternating some slightly distorted 8 bits drums with a relatively upbeat sound and a little vocoded voice. Not really revolutionary but not too shabby either. The second one is much darker, with somber echoed percussions and outburst of distant white noise. Once again, it sounds a bit cheap on the sampling rate, probably due to the video game origin of the sounds, but this is a well done, dark and moody track, with a slight soundtrack-ish feeling. The third and final track, "level erase dredge" is however the most interesting one, with a deep rumbling drum that reminds me of Brighter Death Now's "Slaughterhouse" album (BDN making music with videogames is indeed an interesting concept) in a slightly lighter version, but still pretty heavy, slow and morbid.
Interesting and rather well done, "00" is a nice little thing that shows quite some competence, but is too short to really demonstrate where Astrogenic Hallucinauting are going, and what they want to achieve. Still, not bad, we'll see what follows.
Nicolas, July 11th, 2002 http://www.recycleyourears.com
This guy is not your typical musician. He's a percussionist with Zen-like qualities in his sound. Just as STOMP has shown the world that drums and percussion do not deserve to be hidden at the back of bands, SPIKE creates a sound and vigor in his work that demands much attention. For something really different than your usual listening experience, I think it's worth it to check out SPIKE the Percussionist from Houston.
* Buckethead is the stage name of Brian Carroll, an avant-garde guitarist and composer.
Buckethead's work has spanned many musical genres, including drum and bass, funk,
thrash metal, ambient and minimalist music. Although a capable multi-instrumentalist
(also able to play bass guitar and piano), he is best known for his virtuosic electric guitar
playing, characterized by blinding speed, advanced harmony and idiosyncratic lead lines.
He has recorded several solo albums, as well as collaborative albums with Les Claypool,
Bootsy Collins, and perhaps most notably with a great many Bill Laswell-directed projects.