SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS “Central Node Recording” CD-R, 2001 NIHIL MARKET

An already legendary project of Mr. Paolo Bandera, of the even more legendary Italian act Sigillum S (not to mention Helix or his work as a long time collaborator in Iugula-Thor as well), which presents another more than fine CD-R in the Nihil Market series. The result is as harsh and gritty as you can expect from such an experimental unit, although shows a less ear-wounding perspective when compared with its previous efforts after all.

Originally conceived as an alter ego for video activities in the Sigillum S framework, Super Sound High Energy (S.S.H.E.) Retina Stimulants started as an ambitious project ‘intended to conjure a subliminal reference to sensorial synesthesia, with hyperintense noise causing total hallucinations’ (interview with Sshe Retina Stimulants, Descent Magazine #4, p. 16, 17), an effect that our object of comments can provide in the same form, although the original focus has been rearranged quite a bit for this occasion.

Presented as ‘a volcanic sound exploration of virtual environmental sources, gathering acoustic signature from central railway stations and shifting them into hyperventilating media… a symbiotick alchemy of social decoding and personal icons, designed to extract perception and meaning from saturated media’, you can infer that the complex rhetoric speech of the artist hasn’t faded away with the pass of time, and that with this release, Mr Bandera has decided to take out of context his surrounding day-living experiences and get its inner-essence through his habitual process of sonic deconstruction.

The disc consists of seven cuts, being the first one ‘Eroded Platform Microscopy’, which starts with a repetitive gritty wave and an increasing granular layer plus synth. Then the initial wave disappears and new repetitive patterns emerge. Volume comes and goes, the same as samples. During the whole disc, the constructions aren’t especially complex in terms of quantity of sounds, but these are exceptionally structured and diversified. This way the several ranges of sonority have enough room to, let’s say, breathe and to be appreciated without forming a confusing blur. ‘Cloaking Speedlink Detour’ (yes, the SRS titles keep on being that original, and out of curiosity, every single one in ‘Central…’ is formed of three words, figuring a special parallelism) commences with another loop, this time quite melodic: a sort of nice hypnotic sound repeated until a second one, this time made of feedback, emerges and the early sample gets distorted. From then, the tone of the track turns into an hypnotic encounter of harsh loops that increase intensity till the middle of the song, when some of the sounds fade away and the ambiance is calmed to return to another climax and finally turn down volume, although sound never disappears, just ends abruptly. The third cut is called ‘Commuting Escalator Anorexia’, and again starts pretty quiet with repetitive, almost non-distorted consistencies, and then more granular textures emerge, following a development similar to the prior track until more or less the half of the song, when clean bass frequencies totally change its direction in an unexpected (and brilliant) manner. ‘Traumatic Delay Announcement’ has a surprising initiation with a percussive factory-like sampler that comes and suddenly vanishes for a few times. Then we have some mysterious low-pitched murmuring echoed voices and a clinical regular high pitched (not ear-piercing) note. This piece is really monotonous and almost ritualistic, and ‘Crowded Vending Automatism’ starts in a similar way, fairly cold, with very few sounds but enough to provide atmosphere, and after eight minutes of fluid progression, some final interferences awake the listener from the trance. ‘Prime Coffee Overdosing’ starts with a down-tempo rhythm of samples, again like a mantra, but noise appears after the initial minutes, not devastating (you won’t find devastation in this CD, everything’s heavily measured) but powerful enough; and yes, in form of repetitive sample. White noise dominates the climax, helped by a pounding bass like a heartbeat for a while, and finally some electronic frequencies are all that rest, increasing intensity till the immediate end. Concluding, ‘Instant Newsagent Consumption’, besides the usual sounds, has a strong Ambient feeling for the first three minutes, when some noise comes out, but dilutes into echoes rapidly, and the ambiance keeps on. I would say this is one of the tracks with more parts in it, since lots of distinct moods appear and then go along the general sound. Moreover, it shows some interesting stereo effects that you should check with your headphones and some ‘glitchy’ noises acting in a percussive way during more than half of the composition.

So finally, I can’t see the reason why a disc like this, released two years ago and limited to just 150 copies, should be still available. Even if Paolo has always chosen the more underground path, SRS is a living institution in Experimental music, in perfect shape almost 20 years after the foundation of Sigillum S and offering something different each time, while an endless plague of mediocre and cloned CD-Rs is pumping out every single day. Another excellent lesson in electronics for my collection.

Marcos Alcocer