There is a fine, fine line between experimentation and
indulgence, between clever obscurity and complete obtuseness. The
trick in making sonic landscapes is to walk that tightrope where
meaning is balanced against cleverness. Some artists succeed in
this. Eric Alexandrakis’
I.V. Catatonia is another story.
You know you’re in trouble as a reviewer when the nicest thing
you can say about something is that it’s not the worst thing you’ve
ever heard while reviewing for “The Daily Vault”. (Jefferson
Starship’s title is safe.) Bluntly, Alexandrakis’ techno-industrial
sonic montage is disjointed, fractured, and pointless, flattened by
the falling safe of juvenile self-indulgence.
I
think, and I could be wrong, that Alexandrakis was trying
for an artistic statement through sonic collage. What it actually
sounds like a cross between Information Society having an epileptic
seizure and Trent Reznor tripping at WorldCon.
I admit, freely, to not being a big fan of this style of music,
but it’s rare I find
nothing to like about a CD, no matter what the genre.
I.V. Catatonia manages to be completely unlikable, ranging
the full spectrum of musical mediocrity from pseudo-Queensryche
soulful crap to overdistorted guitars with more fuzz than a
three-month old peach cobbler in summer.
I didn’t even like the
packaging. No liner notes save on one of two loose inserts,
no title on the spine of the CD, and a listener response card that
asks for permission to stalk the buyer. Given that I can’t imagine
more than five or six people listening to this CD long enough to
return the card, Alexandrakis should have a slow winter.
I suspect that some fans of this genre will accuse me of not
“getting it”. Maybe so. Perhaps to some minds there are nuggets of
genius in this CD to be strained out from the manure pile. However,
if the casual listener doesn’t find
anything to like about a given piece of music, why record it
at all? It’s like videotaping yourself masturbating; yes, it’s a
permanent record, but no one’s interested except you.
Even if you’re a fan of this genre, avoid
I.V. Catatonia like the plague. There’s a credit on the
liner notes for ‘vomiting’. Must have been at the pre-release
party.
