James Plotkin/Pimmon - Split #8 (12')

Year: 2000
Country: US
Label: FatCat Records
Catalog#: 12FAT024X
Genre: Electronic
Style: Minimal, Experimental
Audio: flac (separate)
Size: 234 mb

Ltd to 1500 numbered copies.
This 12" is in the same series as the Matmos/Motion split, and is similar in many ways. These, too, are musicians adept at messing with sound so much that you get really confused as to what you're listening to. Yet they use different means and have different styles of doing so. James Plotkin is a guitarist, though from listening to this I'd assume he also uses many electronic devices. Not sound on his side of this 12" resembles a guitar to me, yet I read that his songs are based around guitars, so I'm guessing it's true. What it sounds like is waves of laser noises (or at least the sounds I've come to associate with lasers based on sci-fi movies and toy laser guns) with lots of blips, pings and other little prickly noises. It's an interesting, ever-shifting sound. Pimmon's music is based around his collection of recorded "love sounds," including heartbeats, kisses, etc. But of course, these sounds have been processed through so many machines and devices that they are unrecognizable. What's there is waves of synthesizers, mellow beats, and a mood of weird breathing noises, not to mention lots of electronic-sounding noises that I can't recognize as any particular instrument. This is music that keeps you on your toes, that's for sure. Both Plotkin and Pimmon's music shifts constantly from sound to sound, but both musicians are able to set up a comfortable, almost relaxing tone, which is a weird thing to have in the midst of such creative chaos. Like the Matmos/Motion split, this would make a great present for your jaded friends; there's nothing ordinary going on here. (www.fat-cat.co.uk, www.bubblecore.com)--Dave Heaton

JAMES PLOTKIN
A regular contributor/collaborator in cult US label Kranky’s coterie of drone technologists, New Jersey-based James Plotkin is a relative veteran in the field of guitar-based soundscaping. With a diverse back catalogue, Plotkin has released material on labels like Noise Museum, Kranky, Asphodel and Release Entertainment, including collaborations with the likes of Mick Harris, Mark Spybey, and The Young Gods’ Franz Treichler.
Like the recent Andrew Read / Anthony Child split 12” (12FAT031), all the sounds gathered here are sourced from the guitar but, once again, take its function away from traditional playing techniques (picking, strumming) to a far more abstract and processed terrain. Chords and notes are replaced by drones, tones and flickers; the instrument is fully explored as a total sound-source. What emerges are three focussed tracks of discrete sonic experimentation and edgy, isolationist imaging. ‘Part One’ is all low, rumbling drone and metallic chatter; ‘Part Three’ is based around glassy pulse-accretions and piercing tones. Whilst ‘Part Two’ utilises a rumbling rhythm loop, frantic scratch-noise and low-end undertow.
Slowly shifting and building, Plotkin’s tracks sculpt a dark, yet stunning and involving space – each working its own, distinctive character, yet cohering in a cold, spartan landscape of alien atmospheres.

PIMMON
First heard on a demo received in 1998, Pimmon is the alias of Paul Gough, a resident of Sydney, Australia. Having collected and processed sounds on an old reel to reel machinbe since the age of eight, Gough has only recently begun to unleash these sounds on the world — finding release through labels like Meme, ERS and Static Caravan. He has remixes for Kid606, Lucky Kitchen, Kim Cascone and Giardini do Miro, plus a collaboration with Oren Ambarchi/Keith Rowe/Fennesz/Pita all due out shortly after this release.
Calling this his most 'romantic' release to date, Pimmon has taken snapshots of “love” sounds — kisses, hearts beating, old romance songs off 78 rpm records and acoustic guitar ballads, and force-fed them a diet of PC .DLL files to create new sonic parts to play with. While Pimmon embraces the digital realm (PC /Mac, tape manipulation, filtering through a KorgMS20), stripping apart and rebuilding sounds on the PC, he also likes to record to an old analog multitrack machine adding a layer of warmth and hum.
Buzzes and blips, distorted rumbles, ghosts of melody, radar pulses, glitched ambience all are melted into an unpredictable slab of sound that fluctuates on and off. Minimal and maximised sounds weave without sounding unfocused. The ear slips between layers that ripple and shift like quicksand...

A1 James Plotkin Forensics For Guitar — Part 1 (6:05)
A2 James Plotkin Forensics For Guitar — Part 3 (7:36)
A3 James Plotkin Forensics For Guitar — Part 2 (5:25)
B1 Pimmon Fictitious Cells (5:58)
B2 Pimmon Bettler Kempt (5:36)
B3 Pimmon Serenade Sedan (5:40)