CYRNAI – CHARRED BLOSSOMS

Blank Expressions, October 1986
“Charred Blossoms” 12″ LP

Cyrnai, former member of TRIAL and A STATE OF MIND, made this record nearly a year ago, but the reverberations of looming darkness and mysteriousness that have remained in my mind since first hearing it have compelled me to write about it today.

On the record she plays all the instruments (everything from drum machine to mandolin), and creates a post-industrial wall of sound that seems to have required a lot more than the mere four tracks on which it was recorded to create. Occasionally, a recognizable sound surfaces from the murky depths of sound: a flute, a piano, distant voices crying out from an endless void.

A 48 page booklet that is included features poetry and prose with abstract images of mind control, rejection and assortment of nightmares. Words and music like this could only come from the darkest recesses of the human psyche.

Objekt, 1986 -Brian Ladd
“Charred Blossoms” 12″ LP

The CYRNAI record is dreamy, with echo vocals floating in and out of percussive locomotion. Conjurs up images of early Cabaret Voltaire – looking through the stained windows of time at a primal existance. Prehistoric and eternally mysterious.

WIRING DEPT, 1986 -Kefer Dewyer
“Charred Blossoms” 12″ LP

An extremely interesting record. Industrial format. Some East Indian music. The wheels of a skateboard crashing into a brick wall inside a tunnel, and blood. An empty kitchen, where the tap drips all night. Screaming in panic, a rat trapped in an oven door. The smell of bread baking.

The noise plus the notes of a wooden flute equals the music of this record. Sounds and words mixed in a grinder to pulp and strained, unclothed and bare. Two hands mixing dried beans in an aluminum can toan unbroken rhythm.

For each drum beat scattered, are a layer of low distorted vocals, as if a knife is cutting raindrops in half. Tape loops. The sound of a doorbell. And the beautiful sirens of a fire engine at 4 in the morning. Unusual graphics. Great Cover. Intense and pulsing.

JERSEY BEAT, 1986 – Bruce Lee Gallanter
“Charred Blossoms” 12″ LP

This is a wonderful, but strange, 12″ EP. There is a certain quality that only music can evoke, which goes beyond the spoken word, to a point where various realities intersect and flow together, like recognizing the beauty of numerous drifting conversations at once. This music has a lovely, calming feeling, and occasionally has the effect of time slowing down. Most of the vocals are mumbled or altered in the distance, alien, but somehow familiar as well. Everything seems to be floating, not totally unlike those free-flowing Gong/Dead dance jams, just much more subtle. The percussion is always at the center, and frequently appears like sampled natural sounds. This provides a mesmerizing quality of soothing tribal rhythms. Flying saucers hover in a jungle of insect-like sounds, while disembodied voices slowly melt in a fluctuating mass.

One must listen closely to the softer sections to take in the full audial environment. By doing this, I heard my immediate surroundings more distinctly, quite Cage-like. The jouney commences with an enchanting acoustic piano intro, followed by delicate, random sounds. A perfect ending. Also incllluded with the bizarre-looking record is a lengthy little booklet of info, which will take you a while to absorb. Just who is this peron anyway & how does one pronounce that name??

FACTSHEET FIVE, 1990 – (T/MG)
“To Subtle-Drive” Cassette

Electro-minimal music from a rather mysterious artist who also uses her own vocals to lend an eerie tone to some tracks. These are rhythmic tracks that ebb and flow with a strange mix of the organic and the machine, exploring some of the synergies between the two. A bit jarring at first, but finds a groove pretty fast.

REFLEX, 1987 – Tapebox
“Parts Of The Insomnic Wheel”

The band (solo artist) has a cassette and booklet on Ladd-Frith. Ambient, distorted and electronic is the rule that not only this band but the label as well. The album – Parts Of The Insomnic Wheel – is very steeped in sorrow, yet less morbid than its label mates. It seems like a sincere effort, especially because it always requires deep thought and continuous listening.

Lil RHINO GAZETTE, 1990M
“To Subtle-Drive” Cassette

Like the dark pomengranites of mythical Hades, these mystical treats leave a certain ghostly taste behind. The best comparison I can give would be something of a cross between Africsn Head Charge, Diamanda Galas and the Empty Quarter. Cyrnai uses her voice as a musical tool for adding a final veneer over the digitally-crafted, tribal-sounding pieces. Recommended.