Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Ed Wood Jr.
Label: Swarm Records
Release: 2010
Length: 33:00
Rating: 4.3/5
The Möbius strip (also a surface) is, in topology, the first discovered one-sided, non-orientable surface with a boundary. It is named after the German mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius, who with this discovery became one of the founders of modern topology. The Möbius strip is the textbook example of a non-orientable surface. At every point we can put down two normals, but we can’t tell two normal fields apart on the strip. If we step onto it at some equatorial point, straighten up along one of the normal directions, say upward, and set off along its midline, we’ll come back to the starting point, but upside down. What’s interesting about the Möbius strip is that it is a surface of two-dimensional extent, non-orientable and with a single edge, which means the object mirrors itself as you go around the strip. It can be written in parametric form or in cylindrical polar coordinates. A path with no direction, no orientation and no determinacy is exactly what best describes a duo that refuses to bow to the pressure of dictatorial imperatives and commanded guidelines. And the result is a half-hour tale of rebellion, total artistic rawness and youthful, even psychotic, flightiness. The spectrum of what you hear stretches from near-jazz rhythms and math-rock escapades to primal, unbridled HC electro. The phrasing looks complicated on the surface, but at its core this is a pretty intuitive piece of work, all primal instinct and virtuosic dismantling of sequences into prime factors.
The start is promising – the track Горы, which means mountain in Russian, sets the standards for the noise rock you’ll be getting over the next half-hour of travel. The state of orderly chaos only keeps escalating and eating away at your subconscious. The brain is a sponge, after all, and has to soak up everything. Occasional breathers with vocal samples and snippets from the world of movie dialogue (bet you anything: from Wood’s films, of course) weave a landscape in which the two young Frenchmen dare to do just about anything. And everything, well, almost everything, actually works really well. There are so many rhythmic acrobatics that any jazzer would proudly claim them as their own, while behind the thick layers of noise and irritating decibels hides a masked game of music. Infini (∞) slams you in the face with all its pent-up tension, its formalisms of virtuosity, nerve-shredding riffs and a whole lot more. A sexy state of pure musical sadomasochism, a lashing with guitar riffs and guitar strings, genius drum excursions and cries of pleasure are like a drug seeping through the ears straight into your cerebrospinal fluid and brain. The mad genius of the misunderstood, or at least hard-to-understand, Ed Wood (yeah, for some also the worst director of all time … ) gets a fully credible musical equivalent in an unbridled indie brilliance of eight tracks. And the eight lying on its side stands for infinity. No beginning. No end. The tangle of what you hear pushes you to repeat, to unravel the source code, to hunt for the final answer to what the hell just hit us. Some will like it, others won’t, but Ed Wood Jr. go off chasing their own little piece of happiness and your attention.
Taste is subjective, and this sonic perversion leaves a sense of bewilderment in your mouth, a satisfied musical curiosity and a heavy feeling of mental exhaustion. A warning is in order: this is by no means easy listening, and you can only enjoy it in controlled doses and at your own risk.
Line-up
Olivier Desmulliez – guitar, vocals, keyboards, sequencer
Thibault Doutriaux – drums, samples
Production
Raphaelle Duquesnoy & Ellis Gardiner
Tracklist
1. Montagnes en russe (Горы)
2. 20 Pounds
3. Infini (∞)
4. Marcel
5. Tap
6. Kung fu chien
7. Art brut
8. Zemzan
