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Third Eye Foundation is the project of Matt Elliot, a protagonist of the Bristol
scene, first active with
Flying Saucer Attack and then with
Amp, but stylistically affiliated to the jungle scene.
His approach to dance music harks back to 1970s
industrial music, in particular to
Throbbing Gristle's cacophony,
and therefore resulted in sonic puzzles of difficult appeal.
On the debut album Semtex (Linda's Strange Vacation, 1995),
and on the collection of collaborations
In Version (Linda's Strange Vacation, 1996),
Elliot was helped out only by Debbie Parsons.
Semtex (Linda's Strange Vacation, 1995) is all about
lo-fi production, atmospheric guitar textures
(Seefeel-grade guitar-based ambient music) and
jungle breakbeats.
Sleep is the best amalgam of shoegazing and jungle.
When the beat chills down, 3YF drifts in
Orb-grade trance
(Dreams On His Fingers, the 12-minute
Once When I Was An Indian).
Among attempts to build a classical music out of dance music, 3YF's
non-dancefloor drum'n'bass ranks as one of the boldest ideas.
A stronger dub vibration permeates the collaborations on
In Version (Linda's Strange Vacation, 1996).
Short Wave Dub (with Amp),
Superconstellation (with Crescent),
Eyes (with Hood),
the 17-minute Way Out (with Flying Saucer Attack)
tend to be spacier and trancier. Each episode is stretched to the limit
and ultimately annoys. This version of 3YF resembles
Bill Laswell's omnivorous and interminable
dub jams.
Ghost (Domino, 1997) replaced guitars with samples, and generally
increased the disorienting puzzle of sounds. The seven lengthy tracks
are avantgarde experiments, like the tribal musique concrete of
I've Seen The Light And It's Dark, or
psychedelic vignettes bordering on ambient/cosmic music, like
The Out Sound From Way Out, overflowing with dreamy drones and unfriendly
noises and harsh beats, or the closing Donald Crowhurst, a
minimalistic sequencing of drones.
What To Do But Cry represents the wilder side of the project, with its
sudden bursts of "raga-fied" guitar within cyclic maelstroms of noise.
The magniloquent, horror visions of Corpses As Bedmates
(the guitars literally screaming, the drums pounding frantically) and
Ghosts (evoking robotic dinosaurs in alien jungles)
better express Elliot's metaphysics (often derailed by a sense of fear).
The Star's Gone Out is a soundtrack for the creaking clockwork of the
universe: one can hear the giant mechanism rotating and the metallic
clangor of galaxies rolling along their orbits.
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Third Eye Foundation e` il progetto di Matt Elliot, altro protagonista
della scena di Bristol, attivo prima con i
Flying Saucer Attack e poi con gli
Amp. Il suo approccio al ballo partiva dalla vecchia
musica industriale, dalle cacofonie dei primi Throbbing Gristle,
e pertanto perveniva a puzzle sonori di difficile fruizione.
All'epoca dell'album di debutto, Semtex (Linda's Strange Vacation, 1995),
e dell'album di collaborazioni In Version (Linda's Strange Vacation, 1996),
al fianco di Elliot c'era soltanto Debbie Parsons.
Ghost (Domino, 1997), con Corpses Are Bedmates e
The Star's Gone Out,
sostituisce le chitarre con suoni campionati.
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Elliot's futuristic impetus is quite subdued in the four tracks of the EP
Sound Of Violence (Domino, 1997), including a new version of
Corpses Are Bedmates. The title-track approaches the style of
Aphex Twin, but a multitude of sonic events,
rapid-fire beats, tidal waves of dissonance and ghostly voices
The noisier A Name For My Pain
drown and warp the beats into a dense fog of hostile sounds.
Corpses is frantic and jazzier.
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Elliot attenua alquanto il suo impeto futurista nelle quattro suite di
Sound Of Violence (Domino, 1997), compresa una nuova versione di
Corpses Are Bedmates. La title-track si avvicina allo stile di
Aphex Twin, mentre le licenze cacofoniche di Pain e
A Name For My Pain si fanno sempre meno selvatiche.
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Con You Guys Kill Me (Merge, 1998) Elliot rinuncia al caos creativo
e mette a fuoco gli esperimenti del passato.
A dominare il disco sono le masse sinfoniche in rapido movimento su un
ritmo brasiliano di A Galaxy Of Scars,
o i muggiti sottovoce di tromboni sul fitto trepestio drums'n'bass di That Would Be Exhibiting The Same Weak Traits,
gesti sonori non meno audaci, ma concisi e coesivi.
There's A Fight At The End Of The Tunnel lambisce la sinfonia cosmica di Klaus Schulze e
In Bristol With A Pistol, abbandonate le cadenze techno, assomiglia
alle suite psichedeliche degli anni '60.
Soltanto I'm Sick And Tired Of Being Sick And Tired resuscita le spigolosita` degli esordi.
Elliot si fa talvolta prendere la mano dalla sua fenomenale abilita`
nel manipolare suoni per produrre artificialmente l'equivalente di uno
"strumento" (For All The Brothers And Sisters e` di fatto un assolo di free-jazz per strumento
astratto), ma in generale mette la sua prodigiosa tecnica al servizio
delle atmosfere. Nascono cosi` le figure minimaliste che, pilotate da una
fanfara di trombone, si accavallano in An Even Harder Shade Of Dark
Suoni piu` umani popolano il sottofondo.
Nel campo della musica strumentale, Elliot ha coniato uno stile che si
riallaccia a quello di Brian Eno, ma facendo tesoro delle moderne tecniche
di collage in studio.
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Foehn is the solo project of Debbie Parsons. The very ambitious
Insideout Eyes (Swarf Finger, 1998) harks back to 3YF's early albums.
Tracks like I Don't Find You Very Funny and
Numb Silence are pure sound collages.
Just A While Longer and Two Bobied Tangled In Love replay
Cage's and Varese's dadaistic theatre.
Silent Night (Swarffinger, 1999) continues in that experimental vein,
while Hidden Cinema Soundtracks (Fat Cat, 2000) is a completely
different record, employing an arsenal of orchestra instruments, sort of
lo-fi chamber music.
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Foehn e` il progetto solista di Debbie Parsons, che ha pubblicato
Insideout Eyes (Swarf Finger, 1998) e che si riallaccia alle prime,
piu` sperimentali prove dei T.E.F. Brani come l'iniziale
I Don't Find You Very Funny sono puri sound collage.
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Elliott seemed to choose an easier route for the
disappointing Little Lost Soul (Merge, 2000).
The quiet, melancholy mood of Half A Tiger,
Goddamit You've Got To Be Kind and the
11-minute Lost sounds like a surrender.
Samples of opera and muezzins embellish What Is It With You, but
mostly the album is uneventful.
Creativity is at its lowest that it's ever been. A sort of senile laziness
reigns where the restless Elliott used to roam.
I Poopooo On Your Juju (Domino, 2001) is a remix album.
Matt Elliott's "solo" album The Mess We Made (Merge, 2003) juxtaposes
piano-based elegies and cacophonous arrangements of horns, accordions, guitars and electronics (Sinking Ship Song).
The follow-up,
Drinking Songs (Ici D'Allieurs, 2005) is even more conventional songwriter's fare, emphasizing the voice and the guitar the way folksinger and bluesmen
do. To such a quiet melancholy collection is appended a completely different
20-minute coda, The Maid We Messed, a drum'n'bass jam with violent
overtones that, ostensibly, remixes bits and pieces of the previous album.
The honest truth is that this should have been a seven-song EP.
Elliott's third album, Failing Songs (2006) sounded like a less
inspired (more desperate, more spartan, angrier) appendix to Drinking Songs.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx) Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami
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