by: Zero Sharp
Photek was once quoted about having a theory about the necessity of noise in experimental music. Paraphrasing loosely, he spoke of the programmers who went on to produce music being inspired by listening to old slow storage devices for hours on end as they screeched, cramming as much information into their old tapes that they could hold. The User's new release, "Symphony #2 for the Dot Matrix Printer" seems to be a inspired by a similar thing. All the sounds here are identifiable as sounds a dot matrix printer would make as are many of the patterns created from the sounds. The only alterations made here is the possible boosting of some of the layered sounds. The CD claims that fourteen printers were used to compose the symphony, but in truth, much of the 41 minute piece seems to only have one printers playing at a time. In what could potentially could be a very barren soundscape, the mastering here is crucial. The User pulls it off incredibly. The subtlety of the sound use is masterful, and no sound goes to waste. Thematically, the CD follows the path of most classical symphonies meaning the flow is very nice and understandable. In what I found to be a very fresh take on the subject matter, the printer is not particularly confined to emulating percussion parts. As someone who spent a good piece of his childhood listening to dot matrix printers, beyond being an interesting work of art, this CD is just downright entertaining. It seems to be almost as deep as one would care to go, which is crucial to making good experimental music in my opinion. For that reason, it's a very accessible piece. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a change of pace in their CD collection.
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