CARLOS GIFFONI /
LEE RANALDO /
JIM O'ROURKE
North Six

 
recorded 31 August 2003
at North Six, Brooklyn NY, USA

release date: 15 June 2004
AN005 / LS001
running time 18:58

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A seething, screaming set of power electronics and guitar with hardly a moment's pause for air, this recording finds the trio of Carlos Giffoni (computer, synth, guitar), Lee Ranaldo (guitar, firebell) and Jim O'Rourke (synth) in devastating form. This is classic free bombast, alternately sounding like a "rock band" interpretation of Merzbow's Rainbow Electronics or a punk update of a Musica Elettronica Viva session. The instantly identifiable Ranaldo/Sonic Youth guitar sound is joined by blurting digital scree and analog filter abuse, melding to create a heavy tidal rush of ecstatic cosmic noise. The bliss of the set is confirmed by the Brooklyn audience's joyful reaction at the close.

"North Six is a mind-bogglingly great trio recording from two adepts and an up-and-coming interventionist. Definitively old-school noise in inclination, the performers repeatedly set bombs and deviant devices of their own making against each other, stoking a great astral spat. A wild plume of electric-fire smoke invades the performance space as Ranaldo's guitar is repeatedly speared by silver darts of electronics. This tactic only serves to illuminate those moments where the six-string suddenly soars out of the thick air and propels the improvisation far into the stratosphere, Giffoni and O'Rourke's duelling synths sparking like stars communing in abstract constellations."
- Jon Dale, Stylus Magazine, July 2004

"Ranaldo's electric guitar strafes and scorches, a snarling onslaught of clangs and feedback screeches. Giffoni plays guitar and computer, and he and O'Rourke use synthesizers like mean action painters, splurging, dripping and recklessly splashing the sounds around."
- Julian Cowley, The Wire, #248

"...fissions those blissful feedback codas of Lee Ranaldo and Jim O'Rourke's full-time outfit into their rawest atoms."
- Joe Panzner, Grooves 015

"...like being slapped by violent rain while riding a bike."
- Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, August 2004

"If ever there was a lo-fi punk version of musique concrete, then it must be this trio... Essential listening for those who love noise..."
- Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly #430

NEED THOMAS WINDHAM: employment patterns DAVID DANIELL: sem ULTRA-RED: ÁAmnist’a! DION WORKMAN: Ching JOYCE HINTERDING: Spectral The ALLEGORICAL POWER MP3 Series GIFFONI / RANALDO / O'ROURKE: North Six SAKADA: Never Give Up On The Margins Of Logic ATELEIA: Swimming Against the Moments BURR / CURTIS: Alvin Lucier AKIYAMA / AMBARCHI / LICHT: Willow Weep And Moan For Me