Music Reviews: Autistici - Detached Metal Voice & Slow Temperature; Various Artists: Autistici Reworked - Resonating Wires

Autistici is the musical alter ego of David Newman, who also happens to run the Audiobulb record label. Newman is based in Sheffield, which is a long way away from London, New York, Los Angeles, or even Seattle—where I am writing from. But good music is never confined to geographic locations, as we all know. Even in this global internet world there is a tendency, however, to focus on music from your “local” area. I mention this because the music of Autistici (and that of the Audiobulb label in general) seems practically unknown in the United States. So I am doing my small part to spread the word.

There are three pretty fascinating releases here which I'm addressing. The first two are Autistici recordings titled Detached Metal Voice (Early Works Volume 1) and Slow Temperature (Early Works Volume Two). The third is Autistici Reworked - Resonating Wires. This third entry contains ambient remixes by various artists of some of the later Autistici music.

As Newman himself describes the early material, it is from a time when he was exploring abstract sounds. Here is the “official” explanation of what the album is: “A collection of early works exploring the raw extrusion of the human condition. Bringing together abstract early works, Detached Metal Voice is characterized by a detached narrative, AT&T voiceovers provide threads of psychological association, rhythmic neoclassical arrangements and noise electronic jazz improvisations provide the backdrop.”

Fair enough. Now let’s move on to Volume Two: “Slow Temperature brings together archive material from 2001—2005. The collection features abstract ambience, a focus on micro-sounds and digital sculpting of audio from everyday objects.”

In all honesty—as those descriptions clearly show—this is music that is a little difficult to describe. To sum things up, though, the most obvious word people would use would probably be “dissonant.” That term is pretty loaded, though, and does not really do justice to the music at hand. Just be ready for something a little less melodic than the “usual” fare.

Article Author: Greg Barbrick

Greg Barbrick is a Seattle native who was first published in 1988, in his hometown music magazine, The Rocket. Since then his work has appeared in print and online for numerous sources. He Googles himself so often that his mother told him it would make him go blind.
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