CD Feature: B*Tong

So what is this? Chambermusical Industrial? Musique Concrete in Space? An Ambient Scrapyard?

B*Tong are not the first to demonstrate that Soundscapes do not need to be a quarter of an hour long to be effective. But they are definitely among the best. Placed neatly in a MiniDisc-sized box, this pocket-CD-R comes with six intense musical scetches of between two and five minutes duration. Instead of boring you with meandering rivers of distortion and endless build-ups to climaxes that won’t come anyway, these richly detailed stills seem to opt out before the goings get tough, but keep on playing in your mind for days. And it’s a subtle pleasure on top: “Sunrise over Aris” places a heavenly choir underneath the pumping of an artificial respirator and “I never heard a Silence louder than that” sails through gentle oceans of drony water. On other tracks, the evil-spirited clouds of unknowing are juxtaposed with high-pitched helium vocals to great effect.

Just call it emotional No-Nonsense Noise.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: B*Tong/Nid
Hompage: Verato Records