PXP | Nada
Dekorder | CD
"The sudden jolt of PXP peeled open all collected ears. Here was a jutting mass of digitized disturbance... think of equations which create anarchy instead of assert order."
Prix Ars Electronica Digital Musics Jury Statement, 2002
PXP's first release 'while(p){print"."," "x$p++}' earned an Honourable Mention in the Digital Musics category of Prix Ars Electronica 2002. A pristine slab of digital detritus it mined a fertile seam that was unsurprisingly credited to a sub unit of Farmers Manual, who's digital antics earn collective praise or disdain depending on your point of view.
'Nada' follows a similar vein, mapping the digital wastelands of abandoned hard drives, spiked with the exuberance of excess electricity. The 13 untitled tracks veer from white hot cascades of digital noise that pummel the listener relentlessly to quiet, inward pulses that offer occasional, but brief, respite. An unceasing stream of zeros and ones underpinned throughout by a rhythmic sensibility, this is data-as-audio at its most extreme and enjoyable.
The spam scraps - random, filter-defying fragments - that accompany the release at Dekorder's website (www.dekorder.com/releases/009) seem entirely appropriate. Nonsense lyrics, they sit comfortably alongside the audio equivalent of unwanted emails lovingly embraced and routed directly to a junk folder that generates a continuous stream of captivating sonic chatter.
Nada, nothing, this certainly isn't.
[CM]
