[Reviewed by stark]
Star Turbine is the project of two musicians who surely don’t have time for their families. Check their Discogs pages, there are dozens of releases under their own names and different aliases. “Nothing Should Move Unless You Want It To” is built from 5 fragments of several live recordings, from Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Newcastle and Bristol plus one remix. The sound gives the impression that these performances were rather aseptic, in small venues, for a tiny group of people. I wouldn’t expect anything different as this is highly experimental music, improvised to a significant degree, requiring focused attention.
If I said I’m a fan of experimenting only for the sake of experimenting, I’d be lying but I found at least a few enjoyable moments here. The idea is simple – to generate an analog cosmic drone sometimes quite lo-fi and surround it with an abundance of different sounds: clicks, glitches, rattles, hums, buzzes and samples. Sometimes it gives out pretty interesting results like with the highly atmospheric “Fractal Zoom”.
I think these are live recordings exactly how they were performed, without any studio treatment with all the specific character of such an approach. You can hear random feedback here or an accidental sound there but it all has a certain charm. The charm of participating in an ultra underground event in some god forsaken venue for fifteen people or less. Some may have objections about the lo-fi attitude, while the other will consider it the greatest advantage of “Nothing Should Move Unless You Want It To”. I always value soul and devotion to the music over technical issues; I enjoyed this one very much.
Star Turbine – Nothing Should Move Unless You Want It To
Frozen Light, FZL 043
CD/Digital 2016
Santa Sangre 