Reading for October 16

One of the examples of sound art that interested me was Mayakovsky by Four Horsemen.  This is a very strange piece of sound art as there is a lot going on at the same time.  The track starts off simple enough with a single drum beat and some vocals.  But it soon culminates into an intense array of sounds.  The most fascinating part is when an extra layer of sound of heavy breathing is added around the one minute and fifty second mark.  This layer of sound is kept for the duration of the track.  The high pitch vocals can be a bit annoying and the production as a whole feels lacking.  I wouldn’t say that this was pleasant or enjoyable to listen to, but it was interesting.  The vocals while hard to hear over all the shouting don’t make much sense and involve lines such as “no one is talking to no one” and “everyone’s talking to someone.”  My favorite part is a ten second section where there actually seems to be a rhythm or a flow to the sound.  During this section the main vocals drifted off and Four Horsemen focused more on subtle background vocals as well as the aforementioned drum beat and heavy breathing.  It was almost listenable right before the main vocals came back and bellowed out “MAYAKOVSKY” in a loud scream for the second time during the song to finish the track off.  I can certainly say that this work of sound art was creative, but it definitely is not for everyone.

The link is http://www.ubu.com/sound/four_horsemen.html.