Released
1998
Label
Western Blot/
Skin Graft Records
Reviewed by
Michael Lund
Contact
Western Blot W/L
PO Box 250011
Atlanta, Georgia 30325
USA
PO Box 257546
Chicago, IL 60625
USA
Last Edit/Update
04 June, 1998
To Live And Shave In LA
WHERE A HORSE HAS BEEN STANDING
AND WHERE YOU BELONG
Track Listing
1. Vest Pants And Denim
2. Both Mules $325, Shoes
3. For Metal, $3650
4. Four Chokers About
5. Sheer $160
6. Cotton And Pale Cotton Leather
7. $2110 Peasant
8. Diamonds And $650, $500
9. Bullfighter Biker Toreador Sleeves
10. Overlay $1200, Overlay Tulle
11. Sleeveless Sheer Signature
12. And Volume-Plastic, Plastic Tulle
13. Skincare Movement
The music of To Live And Shave In Los Angeles is largely indescribable,
which may be the reason why the activities of this otherwise very prolific and unique band
has gone relatively unnoticed by the music press. Their latest CD Where A Horse Has
Been Standing and Where You
Belong -- which is actually constituted by tracks from an as yet unfinished double-CD
entitled The Wigmaker In Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg -- has been released
through Skin Graft Records.
Where A Horse Has Been Standing
and Where You Belong opens with a treated film sample that ends in the words of the
CD's title. What follows is an hour's worth of some of the most relentless and
uncompromising experimental sound manipulations imaginable. All vocals and
instrumentations have been cut-up and fragmented; all melody, rhythm and lyrical flow has
been exploded. At first, the resulting sonic chaos call to mind someone endlessly dialing
across the bandwith of a short wave radio, or, what one would imagine a recording to sound
like, had it passed through a magnetic storm. However, gradually a new sense of order
arises out of this seemingly complete display of disharmony. A sense of rhythm and
structure emerges, and the steady onslaught of splintered sounds take on a hypnotic
harmonious quality; words and sentences even seem to materialize out of the
incomprehensible stream of vocal mutilation, albeit, any clear meaning or sense remains
elusive.
The sound and approach on each
track of the CD appears to be the same, and on first listen, the individual tracks seem to
differ mainly in length. But there are subtle nuances between the thirteen tracks, and
after hearing it a few times, it becomes clear that the assemblage, or reassemblage, of
these individual songs or tracks must have been very carefully planned and undertaken in
order to create an album of this kind, and still retain a congruous sound throughout.
The painters of the impressionistic
school broke down the fabric of reality into infinitesimal units that were only
discernible at close scrutiny. In a reverse sense, To Live And Shave In Los
Angeles' approach appears to have been the same on this album. Where A Horse
Has Been Standing and Where You Belong comes across as an investigation into the very
nature of music or sound. The individual aural units of 'song' have been called attention
to by the band; it takes the active participation, and ability on the listener's part to
pull back, to restore the fragmented songs.
