GET A FREE CD!Electronica: Decomposure's Taking Things Apart

I recommend that Caleb Mueller a.k.a. Decomposure travel to St. John Lutheran High School in Ocala, Flordia. Decomposure is a master of turning found sounds into Electronica. If he traveled to St. John LHS, he would find a perfect sound source—the boys’ bathroom ceiling fan.

As our youth group traveled to the National Youth Gathering, we spent one night at St. John. They graciously let us shower and sleep there. In the boys’ bathroom in the school hall, in the quiet of the night, I realized that there was a great beat—syncopated, varied, laying down a rhythm track. The beat master was none other than the ceiling fan. DJ Spins All of the Time. DJ Smellbuster.

Decomposure’s album, Taking Things Apart, uses everyday sounds, takes them through the computer, and transforms those sounds into beats, aural movies, soundtracks, songs from the captured recordings. Mueller approaches the project in a refreshing way. As he notes in the liner notes, he did not get rid of the recording hiss or other irregularities. He did not produce the tracks by looping, but instead created almost every measure individually. He did not attempt for that polished sound that he finds leaves most Electronica as too perfect, too removed, too easy. (His thoughts on this seem to parallel my own feelings by the production on many Christian rock band recordings).

Each track is named for the item that produces the sound which gets mixed, sped up, dragged out, pull apart to make the song. Track 1 is a recording of a Scrabble game Mueller played with his wife. At times, he has left enough of the original for you to hear one of them spelling out a word or scoring their play. However, the sound of the tiles, the apartment, and all else turns into a kind of drum circle. World beat meets Electronica where the bongos and congas are replaced by Mueller’s manipulation at the computer desk.

The second track, “Matches,” finds Mueller striking matches which reminds me of the percussion pieces written by marching band percussion sections. The combination gives me the cartoon image of a percussion section striking, brushing, and whacking through their song all while playing their drums using drumstick-sized matches.

George W. Bush’s speech to Congress just days after September 11, 2001, plays while percussive syllables, applause, and other ambient sounds from the recording become the soundtrack. As a mix, this provides wonderful commentary on the War on Terror with beats and pauses accenting Bush’s points, except this isn’t that normal patriotic song mixed with a President’s speech. This is an Electornica interplay that at once points to the speech, drowns out the speech, and second-guesses the speech. This track may also highlight growing concerns that much of our response to September 11, 2001, has been manufactured, manipulated, and calculated by the Bush Administration’s own goals.

This isn’t the kind of Electronica that finds its way onto the dance club floor. You won’t find yourself humming along. However, following the creation of these tracks really opens you up to discover how much can be done with the sounds around us. Listen to a track, and try to hear the original sound being produced. Listening intently to the tracks for bits of the original sound being produced is like stepping right up to an Impressionist painting, seeing all of the individual dots of color that form the portrait. Step into this music, discover the dots, but then step back and see what Decomposure has created.

This would also make a fun car game. Play a track without telling the others what the original sound is. See if they can guess. (Sorry, that’s my youth leader side coming through again. Always looking for fun games for youth group!)

WIN A CD!
There is a copy of Taking Things Apart available through Music Spectrum SASE. Mail in your SASE right away for your chance to get Decomposure’s album plus 2 other CDs.
U.S. readers click here.
Canadian readers click here.

Thanks to Decomposure and Unschooled Records for the review copy and the giveaway CD.