Noah23

Almost simultaneously, Guelph’s Noah 23 has released two CDs of b-sides, unreleased tracks, and cast-offs from his previously planned double-CD, Jupiter Sajitarius, the official and now one-disc follow-up to Quicksand. Like Tau Ceti, Noah’s last collection of unreleased songs (also on Legendary), both Mitochondrial Blues and Sigma Octantis are hit-and-miss. Noah, who possibly applies William S. Burroughs’s cut-and-paste experiments to his own lyrics, falls back on some familiar phrases, and sometimes the beats just turn into noise, like with the blends on "Kinetic Embryo Isotope.” But, a few times isn’t bad out of 34 songs that didn’t make the cut. Plus, it’s nice to hear anything from Noah 23 and the rest of the Canadian contingent of the bloated Plague Language crew since they were snubbed on the PL compilation. Both discs are the expected mix of hip-hop and drum & bass, and both contain some great moments, but Mitochondrial Blues is the slightly better of the two. The sound quality is high, the songs work more as a whole, and Orko the Sykotic Alien and Ceschi are both guests. Still, Sigma Octantis does have the majestic "Birdfish” and the funky "All For the Love,” with Fidget and "Inanonimity Ville.” Fine filler until Jupter Sajitarius drops later in November.