[anthropology.cornell.edu/klein/cultural.diversity.
and.contemporary.issues/05.23.2083/excerpt]

Dr. Klein: As you know, we're well into our discussion of turn-of-the-millennium cultural trends in the United States. I'm not certain I realized the collective extent of the anxiety of those years. Today, we're limiting ourselves to research from the aural spectrum. I believe Mr. Haines has the next object of study.

Haines: I have with me a number of electronic compositions, collected on a compact disc. The frequencies heard on this volume must have severely taxed the output capacity of home listening systems. It's titled Rise|Converge, and was released by Collision Substance Recordings in this hand-bound, custom-cut case.

Dr. Klein: Mr. Haines, adjust your wiring! That squelch was hideous.

Haines: Actually, that was just the introduction to the first track. The sounds you're hearing-- those drone textures, the abstract percussive crackles, the toll of the church bell-- they'll make more sense once you've heard the entire album. Witness the seamless transition, here, into "Exothermic Sculptures" by Su8m3rg3d. Dub bass grooves serve as background for a dialogue between hyperkinetic, nervous breakbeats and spectral ambience. There's a dark atmosphere central to the tone, epitomized by the aggressive, ominous bass reverberating through nearly every offering. And here, this bit by OCOSI reminds me of jazz fusion; a progressive drum jam is broken up by chopped female vocal samples, churning together with echoing keyboard chords and acidic guitars. If Lucas had filmed Return of the Jedi 15 years later, this might have been barge music for one of Jabba the Hut's hookah-fueled excursions.

Dr. Klein: What you should be recalling is the "free music" experiments with automatons that were in vogue in the 2060's. The preparations themselves were no trouble, just supply the instruments, delete certain segments of memory that retain timing logic, and let other random appliances run. The thankless part came afterwards, when interns like myself would scour the results, running the mathematical analyses, not to mention searching for commercially viable segments. This is an example more appropriate for the subject at hand, yes?

Haines: Um, yes, sir. Very true. Well, actually, the tracks get more cohesive later on. Mothboy's "Angelique" keeps the pace steady with an astral drum jam. Likewise, the haunted hip-hop beats on Zenopede's "Hate Couture" really move me. But you're right-- Rise|Converge thrives upon denying the expectations of the listener. It's almost as if the fulcrum of this wave of music lies in creating tempos that are slightly "off," in the traditional sense of rhythm, searching for some kind of disjointed future funk. Static lurks in every piece, hovering low in the mix, always threatening to burst into spitting feedback. Could it be a manifestation of that glitch-fetish we've been discussing, a sort of celebration of musical accidents prompted by the monotony of an increasingly controlled society?

Dr. Klein: It could just be music, Haines. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The facts, now.

Haines: Well, all we have is this quote from the liner notes: "The beat or lack of beats makes less difference than the tone of piece; at any level, it's electronic sound design. By putting this together, I strengthened my own theory that no matter what genre the music may fit into, it can all make sense and be enjoyed within the same listen." Kurt Gluck was the head of the Ohm Resistance label in Washington, DC, and the mastermind behind this record. His "theory" proves true while listening to what is arguably the best contribution: Scorn's "Stinger" buzzes with abrasive drum-n-bass, then gets subsumed into a quiet meditation by Aube on overlapping sine-wavelengths. What we're seeing here is a classic 20th century compulsion to collect all the disparate strains of consciousness and force them together, to have them make sense in the "big picture."

Dr. Klein: Haines, are you an anthropologist, or an amateur fiction-writer? To even begin to suggest such a thing, we have to compare this to other forms of evidence at the time. Interestingly enough, this compilation reminds me of two others that were issued around the same time: Low End Recon: A Dark Hop Transmission compiled by the Hed Nod and Empty Light labels, and Mille Plateaux's Clicks and Cuts. In fact, one could almost say that it was middle ground between the two. Let's open up the floor. Any comments?

[end.excerpt]

-Christopher Dare