THE SPLATTER TRIO: Hi-Fi Junk Note

Dave Barrett: saxophones, electronics
Myles Boisen: doubleneck electric guitar/bass, electrnonics
Gino Robair: drums, sampler, Theremin

Faced with the dilemma of whether to release a live or studio recording, the members of the Splatter Trio decided to combine the material from both into one computer manipulated hybrid. This was the beginning of Splatter Trio's fifth CD release Hi-Fi Junk Note.

Three years in the making, and using material recorded from their US tour and various studio dates, Splatter deconstructed the recordings down to their component parts (solos, duos, themes, etc.) reassembled them, overdubbed and layered more parts, and eventually sliced and diced it up with a computer editing system. The result is akin to the work of John Oswald's Plunderphonic projects, but without the legal hassles...

For example, track 6 "Dino Narrative, Shit Hits Houston All Aboard" is a complex layering of a live recording in Houston, TX of two pieces ("Shit Hits the Fan" & "All Aboard") and a live studio manipulation of an improvisation by sample-wizard J.A. Deane, all of which is electronically processed. Tracks 1 and 2 ("Party Horn Rumbles" & "Bead the Feast...") combine slowed-down and reversed Splatter samples with accelerated and processed improvised sections.

Hi-Fi Junk Note has no breaks between tracks, and works well played either in its entirety or with the CD player in "shuffle" mode.

Special guests include Eric Muhs (electronics, guitar & trumpet), Bil King on his homemade "cleft ch'in", and J.A. Deane (live sampling). All other instruments played by the Splatter Trio.

More information about the Splatter Trio is available here.

"...constantly reshuffles myriad musical elements into as many combinations as the collective imagination will allow." --San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Hi-Fi Junk Note takes improvised music and musique conrete, throws them together and celebrates the resulting broth." --The Rocket

"The sonic equivalent to the fragmented vision shared by Picasso and William Burroughs..." --Option

"Great shuddering splotches of sound buck-jump like minstrels on E, only to morph into a kind of vaporous B-movie soundscape..." --Metro
(The rest of this review is available here.)

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