Cherry Point/2673 split CDR
MySpace/YouTube vortex (Naomi Elizabeth "It's Not Easy (When You're Me)" video, Naomi Elizabeth various live, Can't live, Suffering Bastard live, Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck live, "Make the Ultra Hoodie Scarf")
Jessica Rylan/2673 split CDR
2673/Unicorn split
King Darves "The Only Other" CDR

Finally getting to a small stack of CDRs from Kitty Play Records, the semi-infamous prolific/sketchy CDR/vinyl/etc weird/noise label from New Jersey, basically the Freedom From of the 2000s (maybe, I don't know, I mean just look at their website). These have been sitting here buried in the HQ stacks for at least two years, all packaged the same way in cardboard sleeves, I think spraypainted (its subtle but they feel grainy and smell funny), with the cover art xeroxed on big-ass wraparound stickers that seal the sleeve shut. Total CDR label effluvia but the Kitty Play art is almost always cool and the music on the actual discs strewn throughout the junkyard is almost always even better. After all, this is the label that brought us perhaps the most wholly appropriate 21st Century noise release so far, P.T. Barnum's Gallery of Masturbatorial Disenchantment by Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck (from 2005, a four-and-a-half-minute spraypainted CDR packaged in a DVD case with various recycled porn for a cover). And anything Kitty Play or anybody releases by 2673 is good. The 2673 half of the Cherry Point split here is in fact very good, an intense single-high-tone-in-quiet-quiet-room staredown. Everything 2673 does is completely in awe of its own potential for silence, and so am I when I listen to it. People think it's noise, but it might in fact be the real private-press synth of today. Cherry Point is just as awesome as it is every other time with the expected and delivered psychedelically preposterous wall of noise, a perfect setup for 2673's psychedelically preposterous wall of silence. In the meantime, while 'researching' this post I noticed that a comment had been left on the Kitty Play MySpace page by "myspace spammer" Naomi Elizabeth, with a YouTube link to her new video for "It's Not Easy (When You're Me)" and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....wow. I vaguely knew of her, that she toured with Jessica Rylan and Twodeadsluts, but I was not ready for this. As far as noise-scene stripper-mannequin terrible-amazing performance-art mindfuckery goes, I would say she has nailed (ahem) what Misty Martinez went for and overshot (cough, sputter) earlier in the decade......actually, you know what, now that I've checked out some of the related links and have seen the same song performed live, never mind, I take it all back. Misty was better. I mean, the Naomi video, as OTT/WTF as it is, is actually much more subtle than her live act, where the performance-art irony (not to mention the rather shrill vocals) sticks out like a sore thumb. Also compare the subtlety of Can't with Naomi Elizabeth at the same venue... and onward I go into a brief YouTube vortex featuring two by Suffering Bastard (new to me, slow grindcore in the dark, pretty good tones but can't tell from these snippets if the overall storyline is any good) and then the infamousness of Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck (now THERE'S a storyline, makes Prurient look like Francisco Lopez or something). I love YouTube vortexes, I even somehow just watched this video... And now back to the stereo: wow, I have a Jessica Rylan and 2673 split CDR?? This looks great, how could I leave this sitting in a stack for two years?? I mean, at the time I got it (2005) Ms. Rylan (aka Can't) seemed pretty ubiquitous, touring and putting stuff out, but now that she seems to have slowed down the pace a bit, the importance of ALL of her releases is becoming clear. Same with 2673, who also has a lot of releases that patiently accumulate to form a crucially subtle noise-scene statement. So naturally this split release, another sleeve/sticker thing from Kitty Play, is excellent. Rylan does some of the most minimalist sustained instrumental stuff I've heard from her. I guess I just really like noise music when it's quiet. Wait, does the first track, the a capella "Breath Control," count as instrumental? I say it does, because our breath is not our voice. Right? Anyway, seven short and totally engrossing tracks by Jessica Rylan here, while 2673 has two tracks, both quite long at around 15 minutes apiece, still working that ridiculously high-pitched tone to ridiculously quiet lengths, this time more aggressively than on the split with Cherry Point. And speaking of aggressive, on the split with Unicorn, also on Kitty Play (this time in a really nice cardboard sleeve that is very professionally printed on by Thumbprint Press), 2673 really brings the ruckus for track 2, "Provoked By The Nocturnal Aspect." Compared to his usual approach, this is like Merzbow. Track 1 "Future Pills" on the other hand is as chilled-out as ever (although this time the single tone is more low-end and it kind of drills into your skull - when you turn your head a little you can tell), while Track 3 "Psychological Space" is ultra-minimal and ultra-high-end, really a brilliant piece. As for Unicorn, some memory tells me they're from Minnesota (could be totally wrong) and I think I'm a little noise-burnt to really pay attention right now. (Plus the wife just came out of the bedroom and told me to turn it down. When we set up our new entertainment center we moved the speakers around and now it must be too loud in there. Tiny apartment, family of four, three thousand records. Great combination.) From what I can tell it's mostly pretty subtle/minimal noise, although the first track seemed to have some power electronics vocals going on. Track 7 "Old Cajun Mystic" (?) sets a single deadpan note against near-silence to a nearly absurd point. Would listen to again. Finally, also from New Jersey, also on CDR from Kitty Play and in a cardboard sleeve with killer/lotech artwork, is King Darves with an album called The Only Other. This one I actually listened to when I got it, and I remember it being a head-turner, the way this kid who had been an interesting young free-form noise artist had suddenly (to me) become an adept weird folk troubadour. (He still records solo noise, most recently under the name Jenny Haniver, and in a duo with Mr. 2673 called Asps.) Strange gothic/operatic/old-world voice, dreamy odd fingerpicking, a lot of verses and choruses, not so many of them specifically memorable, but the weird overall atmosphere is very memorable, and this is the kind of short-run album that might lead to a private press rediscovery someday. Look for a blog posting of it for free download sometime in 2042. (Yeah right, like Americans will still have electricity then.)