Thursday, January 24, 2013

"Jukebox Capriccio" - Christian Marclay

The song fades in with the sound of an electric hum.  A needle scratches and changes to a percussion turned jumbled, jazzy mess. These sounds mix with an array of twinkling bursts; light and flighty.  The record skips, and then dissolves into a glitch collection that combines with the return of the percussive.  The glitches continue and alternate with the drums until a point of winding down.  The record skips.  Now, longer iterations of sounds begin to loop and repeat.  Noises become more distinguishable; isolated and yet more recognizable.  I find myself becoming attached to these loops, their repetitive patterns singing in my ears. Ultimately, these moments lose out to the audible chaos.  Xylophones lead to a section of distortion - tape being pulled through a player too fast.  A keyboard becomes a drone, leading to a final moment that feels abrupt, rushed, unfinished.  Who would have thought that stopping these sounds at their audible climax would leave the listener wanting more?

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