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  Shock Troops 
  Central Dada Time
  (FMR) 


  
   review by Jeph Jerman
  2019-06-27
Shock Troops: Central Dada Time (FMR)

I believe Dada is the operative descriptor here. A somewhat clownish collection of improvised spackle proffered by the sextet of Pat Thomas (keys, electronics), Pete McPhail (wind synth), Richard Chapman (Guitar), Neil Palmer (turntables), Geoff Serle (drum machine, samples, electronics) and John McCullough (bass on one track).

The opening salvo presents a wide assortment of sound adhesion and dislocation: surges of chordal whoosh, video-game spillage, stabs and pinks and whirrs amid plucked guitar harmonics and just-audible voices. An interesting mission statement for sure. "Black Line" opens with a woman panting underneath vinyl crackle and slipping, skidding musical chairs — chords fading in and out, sped up voices, breaking glass...there's a very pronounced sense of humor on display, similar in spots to some of R. Rupenus' early dada records. At the same time there's also a creeping kind of dread, the suggestion of sinister doings just beyond our comprehension. With "Korma" the drum machine enters, and arrays of sound are hung about its insistent frame. This gives the whole a decidedly more constructed (as opposed to found) feeling, with a certain amount of 1980's NYC skronk raising its objections.

At this point the proceedings seemed somewhat dated to me, a parallel exercise to Zorn's "Locus Solus" adventures, and a careful look at the credits revealed that the music here was recorded in 1989. A long-buried curiosity then. Victorian parlor games anyone?







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