Porest

Porest is the moniker of Mark Gergis, a Bay Area composer bent on raising hell with a microphone, a computer and his own wit. Gergis is right at home on Negativland’s Seeland label, an obvious fit for his sonic anarchy. "Skin Bitch” lacerates Gordon Lightfoot’s "Sundown” into a vaguely familiar drunken shuffle propelled by the motion of Lightfoot spinning in his, um, bed. "Fist Dumplings” is a wry audio exercise in fun with semantics, in which the words "wife” and "fist” are interchanged to produce interesting results. For the most part, Gergis assembles disparate sounds such as circus music, frog noises, German radio shows and ominous droning, but even approaches quirky hip-hop on "Pasture Pressure.” Engaging without being too cerebral or inaccessible.