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Burmese
are an incredibly noisy, messy free form experimental
trio out of San Francisco. And when I say 'free form' I
guess that applies. Because their tunes sound
spontaneous as fuck, loose as loosely as the term can
be applied and improvised as only an accident can be.
As I read on
their MySpace, this largely titled recording was etched in
history back in 2000 (not long before their debut album) and
since the trio has morphed into a sextet that claims to have
bands as diverse as Burzum and Swans as influences. The main
expectation to have here, is to expect nothing and be ready for
anything. If you are into beats, actual songs, tight
arrangements and/or something deliberate you must run as far as
possible from Burmese.
The most
differentiating factor to Burmese’s music is perhaps the
drumming. Why? Because it is the playing of this that will cause
most non-believers to dismiss them as a bunch of talentless
noise makers. With the lack of a steady beat we are left with no
box in which to pack the rest of the music. Not that with the
frame of a 4/4 beat things would fall into place and melodies
would emerge. Not at all. As all the strings sound distorted as
fuck and a screamer goes deranged at the mike, we are left with
visceral and ebullient blocks of powerful noise.
The second
half of the record seems to have more shape. The drums remotely
resemble a tempo and on the fastest songs, Burmese totally
recall the nascent days of grindcore. The strings still sound
like blasts of static erratically bouncing off the walls.
And
when you get to the half of the second half Burmese go totally
abstract, with a huge slab of droning static riding the listener
to oblivion. Close to the end of this powerful recording we can
find a cover of Black Flag’s “I’ve Heard It Before”. One may
recognize this song by locating the last track remotely
resembling a song. Awesome stuff.
MySpace
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