[releases] afe113lcd
genetic transmission: spiral

Track List:

1.  Spiral  42:57

Description:

Tomasz Twardawa is a living legend of the underground industrial scene in Poland.

Since the mid eighties, he has taken part in pioneer projects as TKT, Godzilla and a few more, introducing noise and power industrial aesthetics into the numb, self-proclaimed 'avantgarde' crowd, stimulating its development with his uncompromised, radical approach.

His main brain-child, Genetic Transmission, with numerous great releases under belt, proves that his flame still burns.

After many albums on his own label Die Schöne Blumen Musik Werk, and more recently on Tochnit Aleph, Beast of Prey and War Office Propaganda, "Spiral" is his first release on Afe.

Consisting of one long track - about 43 minutes - "Spiral" begins smoothly with a field-recording of wind blowing through a desert alley, but soon turns into a powerful industrial collage.

Genetic Transmission has the ability to deform everyday sounds and submit them to his own laws, converting usual noises into a proper surrealistic and bruitiste language all of his own.

Most of the sounds used in this composition are culled from recordings of different instruments, original acoustic installations - like sets of stone-sculptures, glass scoriae and metal agglomerates - and field recordings.

Tomasz's equipment includes a wide spectrum of contact and dynamic microphones, old telephone headphones, vintage soviet devices and modern computer technology.

"Spiral" is varied, claustrophobic and sharp. Nerve-wracking at times, with noises crawling up and down the invisible thread that unites them, the album has an oppressive and dense feeling from the beginning to the end.

The few quieter moments are suddendly destroyed by frenetic noises that seem to never rest, reaching one over the other in a wave of destructive frenzy.

The spiral of time materializes in the sound of giant ticking clocks that leave no space for any other emotion except those related to anxiety and fear of what's coming next.

These mechanical sounds clatter, fall, crash, rebuild and move like serpents through the rest of the composition, at moments they almost seem to be waiting the perfect moment for another attack.

A gleam of hope finally materializes as the old industrial wheels slow down and stop while the wind starts blowing again - has it ever stopped? - The final loops fade out and silence is sweet as it has never been.


Reviews:

"È un vento freddo e tetro quello che apre "Spiral" di Genetic Transmission, nome dietro al quale si cela il polacco Tomasz Twardawa, maestro nel comporre un album che tra suoni e field recordings immerge l'ascoltare in un mondo rallentato e pericoloso, un mondo che si scioglie andando a creare un vischioso liquido di sensazioni auditive... La composizione di Twardawa graffia come un chiodo antico, colpisce come un martello, si perde e si abbandona in un auto-disintegrarsi del suono per quaranta minuti nei quali si resta avvolti nel rigido avanzare dell'unica traccia che compone questo disco... "Spiral" è un lavoro intelligente, difficile, ordinatissimo nella sua evoluzione continua, un percorso ansioso e inquietante da seguire fino alla sua conclusione godendosi ogni stravolgimento tra esplosioni noise e momenti di minacciosa quiete..."
Sound and Silence [more]

"...This album, called "Spiral", has only one track that lasts around 43 minutes. The whole song has a very weird surrealist industrial feel to it, which is at once creepy and beautiful. One of the great things about this release is the crystal clear sound design, you really feel as if you are in a very dimensional space. That dimensional space transforms as the song goes on, at once we are in some abandoned factory, then we seem to be in some kind of Giger-esque industrial underworld, to be transported to some "Hostel" like torture room... This is again an excellent release. The album takes you in slowly, and when it's done you want to experience it right away. So, that can only be good. Also the album benefits from crystal clear production values and original sound design. Highly recommended to all lovers of experimental and weird industrial soundscapes!"
Gothtronic [more]

"...Things are a bit more experimental with Genetic Transmission, which is the project of one Tomasz Twardawa, who had a whole bunch of releases on various labels, like Tochnit Aleph, Beast Of Prey and War Office Propaganda, but none I ever heard (I think). Here he has one track of about forty-three minutes, filled with field recordings at the start, but going into metallic rumble quite soon after that. Once it gets there, it stays there. Sometimes he adds different sounds, like multiple ticking clocks, but when the ball rolls, it rolls. It's nice, but perhaps too single minded and perhaps also a bit unfocussed..."
Vital Weekly [more]

"..."Spiral" is one endless barrage of seemingly white noise, but at closer listen you can pick up tidbits of this sample or that loop of tape played backward, but identifiable as music, at least at one time, before Tomasz got his hands on it! But seriously, "Spiral" is an apt name for this, as it goes in a circular motion, an endless rotation of loops and maze-like soundscapes that end up in dead ends but manage to wiggle out and keep trying ever new paths.The clanking of antique-sounding objets, the tick-tock, tick-tock of the clock, the vacuum cleaner sound(?), the chimes, the, moaning and the bells pealing among many other sounds all the rest of the cut-up-and-put-back-together sounds of mundane things that take on new meaning when re-fashioned in this and the howling wind-noise that blows over the rest of this welded together industrial-orchestra, like a continuous wind and dust storm, overshadowing, but not overwhelming the cacophonous, found sounds that, when put together in such a way, synergizes it and makes into something completely different, something new, i.e.: 1+1=3..."
Heathen Harvest [more]

"...Tomasz Twardawa uses a wide range of physical sound sources and these are heard both in their raw and processed forms. It begins with a desolate wind and is gradually filled out by various types of sonorous debris, some more identifiable than others. This opening passage actually reminds me of Pink Floyd's "Meddle", or of what I think I remember that sounded/felt like... The ways in which some of these sounds are allowed or forced to decay is really impressive at times. The mood veers between industrial/dark-ambient (dark chords, deep reverberations, and the (illusion?) of cavernous spaces) and, when the raw sounds become more prominent, electro-acoustic..."
Connexion Bizarre [more]