( Black Note Music)
Via Sinistrae- The Tower
( Black Note Music)
From Aural Innovations #36 (May 2007)
JC Mendizabal is from El Salvador and graduated from SFSU in 1993 with a specialty
in Music Composition and Electronic Music. The music on this CD was captured
from a live Via Sinistrae event: The Tower. TRACK ONE cool droning experimental
electronica. Live recording of February '06 performance at Xicoco Shamanic Arts,
Riverside CA. TRACK TWO I gave one of JC Mendizabal's Kyron CD's a somewhat
bad review in a recent AI issue but so far I really dig this CD! Not too cliched
or ordinary! TRACK THREE pretty damn cool, oh shit, here comes the drum machine!
Pretty elaborate full sound for a live recording!....There's no song titles
or breaks between songs so it's hard to know which "song" I'm talkin'
about! I have to admit I liked this more before the drum machine came in. It
takes it down from ambient experimental to ho hum techno?!?! Now some female
vocal, is it live or sampled?....boy, this drum machine becomes a big drag.
I'm starting to remember the Kyron CD now! Some pre-recorded female spoken vocal,
recorded crowd noises, now some soaring female vocal, no drums, pretty damn
cool! Not bad, but not really good, uninspired?! Thin recorded sound! But at
the same time, kinda nice!?....New percussive sound that is much more unique,
pleasant; fat round bass drum thump! These kind of live recordings always seem
to keep things in a more natural synchronization!...gets pretty nice, dreamy
still spaciness!...back to the damn drum machine that only/always takes away!!!
I do appreciate how this is one long piece fo music. I wonder how arranged it
was?...some intense female vocalizations! Back down into some ambient space
stillness!...cool repetitive electronic dronebeat!...oh, man this drum machine
is a pisser! Some pretty awesome vocals tho!...gettin' pretty funky with the
droney female vocal!...nice intense buildup! Nice vocal, this was prolly pretty
cool to see live even tho it was laptop!?! "The absence of life",
so says the pseudo angry recorded male voice!....long slow fade that never quite
ends..........
Visit the Black Note Music site at: http://www.deconstructionist.com/blacknote/
Visit the band web site at: http://www.viasinistrae.com/
Reviewed by Carlton Crutcher