KELLY CHURKO "Atrophy of the Instant"
C24 (Sludge Tapes)



Kelly Churko left a hint in the liner notes. Between the recording dates and the hardware sponsors he simply writes: „refer: paul virillio: the aesthetics of disappearance“ and „greg egan: schild's ladder“. Well, I have to admit I am not familiar with either of these works but it seems they inspired the track titles such as „luminous emissions“ or „productive disharmony“. I guess it is to much to call this tape a concept album but yet, it is a compilation of composed works that as a whole can be seen as a composition in itself. By stating twisted stuff like that I simply mean: You put the tape on and the sonic scapes embrace you from the first second on. The single tracks are standing for themselves while being carefully weaved into the whole stream of sound: Between them there are no fractions. As far as the quality of the sounds is concerned it is rich in texture. It almost seems at some points more like a material object: The cracks and glitches then appear somehow physically within one's reach.

When I saw the Churko's name on the tape lying in the store I directly remembered the story of him mixing the record of Incapacitants live performance at the 2007 No Fun Fest: „Kelly, Can you make it more harsh?“ However the store owner I bought it from just simply said: „Yeah, it's noisy but not harsh noise...“ Anyway, the cool thing about it is: The more I listen to it the more it blurrs and blends the boundaries of the different styles. After all what you will definintely get is an immersive sonic experience and to me that is what really matters.

Kelly did an outstanding job on this.

http://sludge-tapes.com/release/release3/

-- Benjamin Düster