single // Behind The Radiators
Mika Vainio, one half of Finnish
electronica duo Pan Sonic (now, apparently, on
temporary hiatus) released this 7" single as part of Touch's
Sevens series in 2008. Behind The Radiators consists
of two tracks, both titled 'Behind The Radiators', both with locked
grooves at the end, with no speed specified. The idea, according
to the Touch website is to allow the listener
to participate by themselves deciding what the correct speed actually
is. Me, I opted for 45rpm, mainly because that's the speed I always
associate with 7" singles but I will try this at 33.3 and 78
at some point. The single is housed in a sleeve by Jon Wozencroft
containing a photo of - you guessed it - the back of a radiator,
complete with peeling paint, dust and cobwebs.
Anyone who has listened to Pan Sonic will be familiar
with their aesthetic - noise, glitches, electronic drone, empty
spaces, pulses and what can only in the loosest sense be described
as beats. Behind The Radiators follows that same fractured
pattern but is entirely structured from what sounds like the crackles
inherent to vinyl pressings. I'm probably wrong. It's probably MAX/MSP
but it sounds like vinyl detritus to me.
Rhythms and shapes are sculpted from mere static
and needle noise, effectively meaning that the inevitable noise
from your own turntable and needle is also complementing the noises
embedded into the single's grooves. Add to this the fact that the
user can determine the speed, the volume and the duration of the
locked grooves at the end of each side and you get what is a neatly
participative recording overall. I also like the fact that less
adventurous ears will potentially dismiss this as near-silence or
just a dirty record, when a simple tweak of the volume dial will
totally change the perception of the recording.
Listening to this reminded me of when I used to
buy stacks of second-hand 7” singles from charity shops in
Colchester where I went to university. I came upon Devo's 'Through
Being Cool' and it remains the grubbiest, most crusted, needle-bruising
piece of vinyl I own; it is so dirty in fact that at times you can
barely hear the music through the crackle. I always intended to
clean it down one day, in case that helped, but never quite got
around to it. A few years later I downloaded the song on iTunes
and I can't listen to it. I can't listen to it because it doesn't
sound anywhere near as good as that dirty 7".
7":
A. Behind The Radiators
B. Behind The Radiators
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