Hands To | en

Jeph Jerman started recording under the name Hands To in 1986 as an sampler and tape loop project. Most of the early work was sampler and tape loop based. Later he moved to performances using only found objects from nature such as stones and pinecones, and in the case of "Egress", recorded an album using only a dead cactus from the Arizona desert. Jerman has since ended Hands To, but carries on field recording with AARC.
About album - Hands To ‎– Catalogue Of Abuse
Tracklist
A1 Extract
A2 Decay
A3 Short
A4 Edit
A5 Entropy
A6 Cross-Talk
A7 Direct Contact
A8 Ground Feedback
A9 Medium 1
B1 Medium 2
B2 Oppenheimer
B3 Acceleration
B4 Heat
B5 Direct Abuse
B6 Deceleration
The ideas behind this album seem to be to push found sounds to & beyond the point of distortion, which in theory puts it in two categories - one being Concrete Music (ie. pushing pre-taped sounds beyond the limits into distortion through electronic means is Concrete), but more to the point, this is Pure Noise, and should appeal to the ever-hungry dissonance-mongers. "Extract" opens the 'A' side, an immediate grating loop of heavy Industrial motor vehicles at work, sustaining the velocity of a pneumatic drill while barely-heard movement goes on below the surface. "Decay" continues this theme, distorting the source sound (unknown even to the artists) into something torn, twisted & lethal. Voices can be heard through the rushing (as in waterfall), thundering (as in, well, thunder) sound. "Short" is higher-pitched & seems to hide a deliberate composition, although it hides it well! Dense, machine-like in it's repetition of elements & disturbingly discordant. "Edit" seems to consist partly of broken conversation & human voice, fed through so many treatments that it's ambience has become the cry of machines. "Entropy" might be tapes of huge flocks of birds, treated electronically into something far more deadly, the cries of hybrid animal / electronic forces. This is full of interesting little moments which get you trying to guess just how they made that noise! "Cross-Talk" is a more sustained sheet of white sound, like an instant slice of impacting metal-on-metal, looped to infinity, stretched out seemingly forever in a harsh gaas sheet. "Direct Contact" sounds like pulled tape with added faulty electric connection crackling, producing a busy, damaging sound. "Ground Feedback" combines a higher-pitched sustain (and later short wave noise) with more ground-bound rumbles & shuffles to produce a more minimal-sounding thing. "Medium 1" is a bass sustain, an angry bulge of noise which boils away, gravid with anger, changing often, carrying itself dangerously close to composition now & again.
Side 'B' opens with "Medium 2", another journey through deep dark distortion, this time with a subterranean feeling to it, a mild reverb (accident?) adding dimension to it's deep grizzling roar. "Oppenheimer" shrieks in pained distortion, a huge grating wall of noise. "Acceleration" uses images which are almost recognizable - snatches of voice, tape pulled & manipulated, all forced through painful filters. "Heat" changes the style a little, coming across the minimal, found sounds, a little like the TONART "Zwei" album, before moving into a churning, cycling whirlpool of noises which sound like stone constantly grinding against wood while other noises join in - spikes of percussion, crunches of other ambient sound. "Direct Abuse" sounds like speed-manipulated tape again, although I'd imagine it has more to do with altered frequency. It creates a regular series of impressions which might be referred to as 'anti-rhythms'. This is usurped by other images - more indiscernable shufflings & metal-wire-against-edge (plastic?) noises (sounding a lot like a small motor cycle engine). After this come more shufflings & rattles, more muffled noises, defying any vestige of 'music'. It could be the sound of strange rituals held under night's veil or everyday life through super-amplified hearing. Finally "Deceleration" returns to distortion, however with a much more composed thing which brings to mind a slightly more rough & raw version of THROBBING GRISTLE's "Valley Of The Shadow Of Death", becoming a long, sustained mass of noise.

I'll admit, I'm no great fan of harsh Pure Noise stuff, but this album grew on me - it gets more interesting as it goes along. For those of you with a taste for such things, this should go well with your HATERS, NEW BLOCKADERS etc.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch .