Indie Workshop
reviewed by Grant Capes
You get these albums sometimes, and it is like reaching into a black plastic garbage bag without looking. You might reach in and pull out a cute puppy, or a hundred dollar bill. Or you might pull out twelve rusty steak knives, blade first or a huge pile of that same puppy's steaming feces. Thankfully, with Magicicada's newest concoction, I have pulled out a strange but magical machine that seems to creak away on splintered sprocket wheels and projects the dreams of long dead artists onto a nearby wall. Everyone is Everyone is a dense and varied composition of sounds, some juxtaposed to mystify and others melded together seamlessly.
Atlanta mastermind and chief musician, Christopher White, seems to pull these random and disparate sounds from quite a variety of sources, both in the digital and analog world, both from here and now and from before (by way of tape samples and sampling conspirators, Destructo Swarmbots). White makes nine considerable pieces of music, almost filling the limits of a mere compact disc, but never resorts to filler pieces or empty space, unless it is called for in the compilation.
It is hard to imagine this music coming from Atlanta, and not the polar reaches of Scandinavia or the dirty streets of New York. It has so much in common with the works of the sound compositions of Basinski and Branca, as well as the dark rhythmic potentials of the Double Leopards, Mouthus, and Axolotl camp. The beauty in Magicicada's work is that isn't based simply of one or two of these models. It is both alive with change and polyrhythms like the No-Neck Blues Band and yet also content to hover ponderously like Stars of the Lid or Birchville Cat Motel. Look carefully and often for more releases from this amazing Atlantean (?), for I have a feeling he is going to make some big noises in the near future (in addition to this astounding and considerable piece of work).
