Justin Wiggan

Plastik Tonez #2: HNDSOFLVE

BY Bryon HayesPublished Mar 23, 2015

7
UK-based sound artist Justin Wiggan — via his Roadside Picnic project — has amassed quite a catalogue of cassettes for a plethora of small tape labels from across the Western hemisphere, including the Canadian Los Discos Enfantasmes and Unit Structure Sound Recordings imprints. With J&C Tapes, Wiggan has found somewhat of a home for his Plastik Tonez series, in which he tears apart and re-imagines classic albums (or, at least, albums that should be classic). Each one of the tapes is released in a miniscule run of ten copies available for public purchase plus three additional copies, which are split between Wiggan himself, the label and the artist behind the original album.
 
HNDSOFLVE is the second release in the series, focusing on the obliteration of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. The source material is nearly unidentifiable, having been smeared into a series of drones, interview snippets, oblique samples (the passage describing the stages of rabies infection is particularly disturbing), electronic goo and cut-ups from the original album. The whole affair plays out like a demented musique concrète-meets-pop music masterpiece, and is worth diving into deeply. Good luck scoring a physical copy, though: the tapes are long sold out at the source.
(J&C Tapes)

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