AVMUS

untitled demo

John C. Miller (2003)

no album art available at this time

review by Bill Binkelman

In some ways, I consider avmus (from artist John C. Miller) to be the evil half-brother of eien's partly cloudy skies, which I reviewed earlier this year. Where the latter contained retro-sounding synths played in a light-hearted and even cheerful (yet idiosyncratic manner), the former is closer to a cross between Loki-ish mischief and downright scary malevolence. On the earlier tracks, it manages to be catchy and kinda fun to listen to, but later in the album...!

Some songs highlight arrhythmic beats, as on the opening number, "shhh...you'll wake wørkers." On headphones, this is a kick, as there are all these assorted synthesizers percolating, bubbling, and humming everywhere while a retro-snare drum pounds out this wacky beat. "walk with Mary" may be the closest thing to a traditionally structured song here. It's still a bit off the wall, but its beat is regular and the mixture of pseudo-vibes and synth horn-like tones carry a legitimate "melody" most of the time, albeit a slightly darker one. This number had my feet tapping, even when it ramps up at the end and lays on some loud fuzz tones over the bells/horns.

Besides comparisons to eien, avmus also reminds me of the artist Ozone Player (Otso Pakarinen), an artist who throws a veritable kitchen sink of electronics onto an album and does it with a sense of humor and plenty of style. However, Pakarinen is at both a higher level of artistic sophistication and recording technique - his recordings sound good even when they are truly bizarre. Miller (avmus) still has some rough edges to work out, although he has the right idea on songs like "untitled" which mixes a funky feel and beat with rapid fire spacy laser zapping synths and outer space movie sonic textures.

On the other hand, tracks like "sønic findings of avmus" with its near chaotic collision of pumping drum beats and zany synthesizer sounds and tones comes across as an unfocused jumble of ideas, almost like a kid in a EM studio throwing a fit. And "Dubblin" is rough going, since the artist floods the song with both distortion and repeating musical phrases that may drive you to reach for the CD player's remote. The album tends to disintegrate as it winds down from here; there are still snatches of whimsy (such as the refrain of "decønstructive bløck") but the forced carelessness that Miller seems to be throwing at the listener with his crashing drum beats, whirly-gigging electronic signals, and fuzzed tones finally wears thin. I longed for some subtlety (to give my nerves a rest) or at least a semblance of musical cohesion.

It may be that this confluence of jarring electronic instrumentality on the latter half of avmus' debut is intentional. Maybe the point of all this is distortion, chaos, and non-accessibility, but then why are the earlier tracks just the opposite? Miller is no dummy when it comes to creating some impressive sounds, and he occasionally knows what to do with them. Maybe I just don't "get" this. If that's the case, I still know that this is, for the most part, not my cup of tea.