Kettle S/T CD.

A report I received in the post from Andrew Kettle, Brisbane resident, sound artist, and announcer/programmer of 4ZZZ fm program Atmospheric Disturbances. All pieces included are accompanied by extensive notes, relating to recording information and function, and are grouped accordingly. However other than the exploration of sound, and a digitally processed undercurrent, there is little common thread among the various groupings: all pieces were constructed for different reasons, using different sound sources, and therefore the results are different to one another. I guess the easiest descriptive point I could make (in comparison with most of the other stuff featured in this issue) is that there is nothing here approaching a song - at least not in the traditional sense of the word. It's more about 'here is what I've been up to over the last couple of years exploring sound using digital means'.

I'm not really big on reading extensive liner notes (oh hell, I'll admit it - I'm not that big on reading any huge slab of text), so naturally my focus is on the way the disc sounds when I stick it in my sterio after a nice dinner (pasta it was this evening). I'd say the headphone recommendation (one of the bits of text that jumped out on initial inspection) is a good idea for portions of the disc, particularly the droning stuff that occupies most of the recordings. There are sections that are pretty damn harsh though (falling under the heading of 'microtracks' and 'beautiful noise'!) so be careful.

Mark Groves.