The Squid's Ear Magazine


Maguire, Phil  / James L. Malone: Working Title (Confront)

Phil Maguire (Verz label) exchanges abstract electronics from a variety of lo-fi devices with glitch and aberrant guitarist James L. Malone, a London improviser who has worked with Eddie Prevost, Phil Durrant, Steve Beresford and Adam Bohman, as the two trade strange sonic disruptions, avoiding pandemonium, instead using noise in pointed discourse.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Phil Maguire-computer, effects

James L Malone-guitar


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Label: Confront
Catalog ID: ccs 83
Squidco Product Code: 25458

Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: UK
Packaging: CDr in a tin case
Recorded in Summer, 2017.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"I might be wrong, but I think Working Title. which matches Phil Maguire's electronic swoops and fizzes with James L. Malone's shapeshifting electric guitar squeals, is Maguire's first collaborative outing (via recorded media, at least - I know he's explored the duo format in live excursions for some time). It's a fine debut if so, bolshy and mischievous in places, with a kinetic dynamism that's an interesting contrast to Maguire's often rather introverted solo releases.

On this session guitarist Malone seems to be veering towards the syncopated clatter of 'Hit Me', his duo recording with Daniel Kordik, rather than the coat-hanger jangles of his Onin duo, in which he pairs up with saxophonist Joe Wright (their debut album 'Errery' was released on Maguire's Verz imprint, coincidentally). I say 'seems' because I can't really make out who's doing what on this album, mainly because Malone's avowedly non-idiomatic playing sits at a substantial remove from conventional expectations of what the guitar should be. As skilled in sidestepping improvisational orthodoxy as he is in kicking standard rockist gestures into the long grass, his playing is moody and enigmatic in the best possible way. It's an approach that thrives on collaboration, the acousmatic shilly-shallies perfectly suited to both twin-player frolics - see those releases I name-dropped above for examples - and, I would expect, larger groupings.

You get a pretty good idea of how Working Title will pan out from the get-go. Exhalations of fibrous hiss usher in ultrasonic tooth drill whines, while bassy generator hums give us a low-end cuddle. Rubbery wah-wah squeals yodel across sandpaper prickles as a smokestack puff adds nostalgic textures.

Malone's non-guitar and Maguire's computer continue to spew out skeins of wriggling electro-acoustic sound from then on. Across three tracks, their particulate scrapes and impatient whimpers enact a biomechanical interaction that seems independent of any overarching consciousness. It's all smoke and mirrors, of course - we know Maguire and Malone are onsite making these sounds, but it's all too easy to edit out the authorial presences and tumble into the (apparently) self-organizing hubbub, as if we'd plunged an endoscopy camera into a teardrop to take a gander at the microbial frenzy kicking off within.

And, while the 16 minutes of 'Working Title 3' give the sounds plenty of space to jostle and evolve, I've got a soft spot for the dissonant terseness of its immediate predecessor, whose grey noise jags, tinfoil jitters and chugging swoops evoke a hellish orchestra of busted cathode ray TVs, every one tuned to exactly the wrong frequency. Lovely."-Paul Margree


Artist Biographies

Phil Maguire: "I'm an experimental musician/improviser/sound artist making reductive music that explores emptiness and malfunction. Simplicity is at the core of my work. I use cheap electronics, open source software, synthesis, and obsolete audio equipment to create sparse sonic environments for personal reflection. These are often very quiet; very loud; loud made quiet; quiet made loud.

This work extends into composed instrumental music, via short text scores and instructions. These works have been performed by the likes of Garth Knox, Juice Vocal Ensemble, and Mark Sanders.

I improvise with cheap electronics, using the same emptiness to create charged interactions with other musicians and audiences. I perform solo, and in groups, with musicians including Phil Durrant, Eleanor Cully, and James L. Malone.

I run verz, a label and series presenting quiet music and sound art."

-British Music Collection (https://philmaguire.com/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"James L Malone, London: experimental, improvised sound, interference, feedback, extremes

James L Malone is an improvising guitarist living in London. He has performed with musicians such as Eddie Prévost, Ute Kanngeisser, Phil Durrant, SteveBeresford and Adam Bohman. Regular projects include: Onin (with Joe Wright), a duo with Phil Maguire and Frost&Malone (with Reuben Kyriakides)."

-James L Malone Website (https://www.jameslmalone.com/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Untitled 6:30

2. Untitled 7:27

3. Untitled 16:22

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Duo Recordings
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Acoustmatic Electronic Composition

Search for other titles on the label:
Confront.


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