The Rubber Room column is a weekly look at recent and notable releases that don’t fall into the rubric of traditional reviewed material—namely 7”’s, 12”’s, 3” CDs, EPs, cassette-only and MP3-only releases.

Kites
Volume 5: Chariot Hating CS
[Unskilled Labor, 2004]

Chariot Hating opens with vocal sounds, manipulated and bent into tornadoes of thick noise. Primitive synths enter and come to cover the piece in a wavering microtonal glow. Side two contains two lengthy drone exercises divided by a somewhat pointless feedback loop. The second of the long drones has a very soothing quality with its bass rumble before it suddenly mutates into a windy soundscape, pulsing loops hiding beneath. Worth picking up for those intrigued by the lengthier cuts on Christopher Forgues’s full-length release on Load.
[Ian Johnson]

Nautical Kites
Herculoids CS
[Unskilled Labor/Heresee, 2003]

Here’s a live improvisation by Baltimore’s Nautical Almanac and Providence’s Kites. Recorded last September, this sounds exactly like one would imagine. Twisting drones and fuzzy tones from Christopher Forgues floating above and mixing with Carly & Twig’s fractured circuit-bent skronk. Unfortunately, the trio never settle into any significant groove or tonal range; the recording comes across as more of a battle than a collaboration. Worth picking up, if you’re looking to impress Thurston Moore.
[Ian Johnson]

Knifestorm
Unchained CS
[Diamond Tribe, 2004]

Just in time for a summer-long tour with Dream House, Knifestorm has released this excellent cassette. Unchained shows him tweaking his old electronic techniques as well as experimenting with “real instruments” on the second side. Side one could approximate parts of the Funeral Music tape at 78 rpm. Where that release was lethargic and meditative, most of the electronics here run in hyperactive bursts. Moments of calm lie in gritty textures and teapot whistles. Side two’s “Don’t Go” is a gorgeous exercise in pastoral synth fields, rolling drums, and hypnotic improvisation.
[Ian Johnson]

Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice
Summer Tour 2004 CS
[Self-Released, 2004]

Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice have an aesthetic not entirely removed from oatmeal-eaters The No-Neck Blues Band and perennial documentarians Amon Düül. Though it lacks the mumbling and sermonizing of earlier releases, the creepiness factor is maintained by wind instruments and delayed guitars. Ringing tones rise from slowly built plucking and strumming until a shaker/bucket groove takes over, only to fade away beneath the hypnotic lead. For fans of haunted houses and/or mescaline.
[Ian Johnson]

L. Rad
Vanity/In-Vanity CS
[Self-Released, 2004]

Now this is what I like to see and hear. L. Rad presents a lengthy tape full of experimentation and playfulness. Things you will hear: dense noise grit, fuzzy guitar exorcisms and sounds from the carnival The courage it takes to release something like this is enormous; it revels in the jack of all trades, master of none trope. Nonetheless, it’s a tape I’m going to keep in my car; varied enough to hold my interest and with a carefree sense about it. Its forty-five minute length alone makes it something of a scarcity in the noise world.
[Ian Johnson]

Keith Levene
Killer in the Crowd
[Murder Global, 2004]

We waited ten years for “Sound Stage One” or “Object B”? No. We waited ten years for “Killer in the Crowd”. Now, was it worth the wait? To the uninitiated, the former will sound like vainglorious riffing over rigid backgrounds without the wailing of John Lydon. So, you know, think PiL if it had cleaned up its sound a bit and was recording in 2004. The latter’ll sound like PiL in 2004 if it’d actually, you know, progressed a bit. Not the most tantalizing of teasers for an upcoming full length, but I’ll hold out hope yet.
[Todd Burns]