Zeno van den Broek & Gagi Petrovic – Ob​-​Literate (Unsounds)

Artists: Zeno van den Broek & Gagi Petrovic
Title: Ob​-​Literate (Unsounds)
Keywords: ambient experimental drones field recordings Amsterdam
Label: unsounds

If you want to hang out in the odder corners of YouTube you will find the way, if you feel more like hanging out in the odder side of music; we happily point our tiny fingers towards the few copies of the by unsounds released release that is still available from Amsterdam’s pride and glory ‘Moving Furniture Records. Odd? Yes, but it is a oddness that is most surreal, music that comes at you like collages of voices and sounds, as if we are hearing multiple speakers in a museum-like environment after the lucid drugs kicked in. The walls have been melting, paintings might transform and the floor is all wobbly; it might make a sane person slightly paranoid, a intellectual stroke his or her chin & crazy people like (I presume) you and me a little bit more sane?

Of course we could read the liner notes that comes with this release, we could see who made this and what’s the artistic purpose of its existence.. but I rather not and experience it unbiased like a mental breakdown that goes beyond me. When the album goes in the second chapter, the speakers seem to be reduced to noise making operatic animals. It made me think of those early nights at a open mic night in which Dadaist poetry writers do their weirdest bits, only this time there are organic noises and eerie church like tones to spread these oddities into the realm of so called ‘normality’.

To be fair, as far as the oddness goes, it might be perfectly fine in the context of a visit to a provocative art gallery inhabited with artistic creatures that had grown up there. In these conditions anything goes, everything is accepted, even if it’s totally weirded out to the commoners that haven’t had the same champagne breakfast as they had. When the male voice pronounced ‘you… tube’ it feels very clear that even though they are absolutely bonkers, they at least try to do their best to connect to the real society of your average population. See it as a bridge build of trust between the artistic alienation and whoever wants to try to walk over it & take a look in to their bizarre world. To be fair, it’s much more interesting than going to the zoo & also more head scratch worthy. In fact even the weird side of YouTube might not surpass the share strangeness that this album has managed to harvest. Yes, they might call it avant-garde but I wouldn’t be completely surprised if this is the work of actual human aliens. Odd? Yes… unique? Probably also yes.. so go down and check it out, you freak. But be aware; approach these artistic arts with polite gentleness as they could suddenly come at you like bewildered evil; don’t piss them off… you might end up with skinless nailed to the wall at their next exhibition. You have been warned!

https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ob-literate-unsounds

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