Review - Uneven Universe: Nebula Blanket

I saw this band a couple weeks back with Trash Dog in Iowa City, and picked up this double tape. First off, lemme just say . . . a double tape is a lot of music. These are 47 minutes each, so it’s more than a CD would hold if you filled it up completely. Thinking about it one way, that’s a lot of sound for your money. On the other hand, what’s the first thing you’d think about an 80 minute CD?



Luckily, this is quality stuff. Uneven Universe use a saxophone duo setup to make some amazing, really haunting sounds, and the highlight is definitely when some sense of melody and change starts to emerge from the otherwise somewhat uniform wash of (perfectly nice) static. About halfway through the first side of the green tape they get busy with the sax, producing long, slow tones that build an immense sense of loneliness and weirdness. It’s the sound of whales after the apocalypse, swimming through the submerged ruins of New York, talking about sunsets.

Following is a segment of pulsing bass contrasted with the sounds of a lightly-touched, echoing stringed instrument. I’m loving the sense of space and difference here – “noise” doesn’t always have to be unrelenting walls. Not that Uneven Universe skimps on that, either – the top of Green Side B is super intense buzzsaw square tones, twisted and turned into an echo that’s ear-piercing. Even the saxophone gets harsh here, open-throated squawking that shows just how flexible good old analog is.

Then there’s a real piece de resistance – a really nice duet for . . . well, I can’t quite tell. A mix of saxophone and theremin? A tone generator? As we progress further in, there’s an organ in the mix, moaning, sloooooooooow and creepy. A real conversation – lots of empty space and skilled improvisation. It’s intense, again in a subterranean, poetic way. This is eminently weird shit – it really needs to be used as the soundtrack to a Lovecraft film.

I will say this section goes on a bit too long – one of the few moments “Nebula Blanket” might have benefited from some self-editing. Otherwise things move very nicely – and re: my earlier comment about the double cassette I guess there’s an important qualification – that ‘noise’ listening just isn’t like listening to other kinds of music. In one sense, it’s more passive – you just sit back and let the sounds wash over you. Of course in other ways it’s more active, since imagination is so necessary – what you bring to it yourself almost makes the experience. But it’s this passive aspect that makes really long releases more logical – it’s not like you’re going to get tired.

With that in mind, I’ll leave the second tape to your judgment entire – or non-judgment, as the case may very likely be. This is thrombosis jonesing, slow and deep, gently unnerving. Pick it up if you’re just sick in the head enough to think you like art.