Out Out - Deepsound FLAC

Either/or. An expression few of us think about and even fewer use. This dangling combination’s latter half has had an album now fashioned out of it. Imagine if you will a sort of music which combines a particle accelerator and the gold extraction process and you’ll be in the correct region of artistry to explain Out Out’s companion record to the more accessible and finalized ‘Deepsound’. Oh you want more explanation, do you? Fine.

We have on our hands the first of what I’m going to term particle electronics; there are no melodies in this arena nor are your ears going to encounter any words, don’t let your ears off the hook… play this one on repeat, play it around people who hate experimental as a whole. The more they squirm, the louder they complain the more gain you give them. Imagine if you will an entire long-form collection that has all the warmth of an electron microscope passing overhead scanning ceaselessly for any kind of imperfection.

Now envision what that would sound like.

Another way to come at this beauty is to go deep down into the mines and blast out ton after ton of rock just to get at the 1 or 2 ounces of precious metal deeply embedded therein. You then would have to pulverize this raw material down a fine enough consistency to chemically flush out the treasure it contains. The amount of effort which Mr. Miller has expended to reach his goal is near olympic and keep in mind he made these auditory confections first; tempting as it may be to view “-or-“ as a remix album it just isn’t so.

Leave it to him to come at the whole process from a reverse engineering point of origin. Anyone else would do the finished product first but this guy opted to give us all a lesson in what the oft-used term re-purposing truly means. I’m not over-stating it when I say these are his most extreme recordings yet, ‘Asteroid 99’ is a walk in the park by comparison and no amount of remixing can push what is contained on here any further; I thought I’d made a mistake listening to this one first when they appeared in the inbox but being able to hear how far afield he’s willing to go is a major coup.

He just doesn’t sleep, that’s the only conclusion I can draw from his heightened schedule of releases. We had ‘Ridotto’ not too long ago and now we get a double set of new music from him. Right, let’s get to it.

Out Out have a love of dub and if that’s not obvious by now you need to go and re-listen to what he’s been up to since coming back to us some twelve years ago. If you’re hoping for more of the guitar-based work he gave out via ‘Swan/Dive?’ you won’t be finding it here. His style of electronics has truly become an enclave unto itself, no matter where you are or what you’re doing there is absolutely no mistaking him when he comes through your speaker(s): the sub-bass on this is cracking as in it’ll be cracking your joints as it passes through whatever viscera you possess.

This guy has a penchant for waveform manipulation because behind those wondrously crushing beats are an array of synthetics which have been violated within an edge of their existence. He’s become so technically proficient that I don’t even try to fathom how it all comes together, I just know that it does. By shortening the length of his tunes he displays not only restraint but -and I cannot stop banging on about this- songwriting abilities; this is what makes his work stand out in such sharp contrast to others. Believe me, there’s a lot of pre-set dogshit being passed off as music these days but Out Out won’t hear of it.

Rather than serve up yet another ramshackle set of work that may as well feature a flatline on the cover, Out Out is only becoming more inventive as he carries on; many others will no doubt talk about how long he’s been doing this but here’s my only question about that: of that era who else is left.

This act were a prominent part of what I call the Eastern Bloc and no, that’s not some reference to yet another socialist failure; alongside others such as Spit, National Razor and Batz Without Flesh, Out Out came out (sic) of the gate swinging nearly 30 years ago and have not yet lost the fire. All those others are long-gone and who knows what they would have evolved into which is a shame but there’s one member from that age who endures, refusing to sit still.

Oh and in case you’d been wondering he still won't chase fads or devolve into the cheesy hell of retro-isms, either

Two singles have so far come from ‘Deepsound’ which only add to the immensity of what is going on; do we get another, well that all remains to be seen. I’d love to know who composes his fan base these days, do the kids like the taste of his product or is it all just too varied and unpredictable… this shiny little collection surely should appeal.