Birds of Tin - Rinpoche
Artist: Birds of Tin
Title: Rinpoche
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)
2008. Birds of Tin is a pseudonym for experimental sound artist Brooke Oates. He has previously collaborated with
Rapoon and Augur (Steve Brand), and released several solo and collaborative works on a variety of labels,
most notably Manifold and Mystery Sea.
We are pleased to announce the first release by Birds of Tin, Rinpoche, on the Hypnos Secret Sounds sub-label. This
recording comes from an in-studio live improvisation from 2002, and covers a strange and varied sonic territory. Working in the
realm of sound art as much as "music," the artist creates an effect that is hypnotic and at times seemingly psychoactive.
"Birds Of Tin is the one man project of Brooke Oates and there has been no new release since 2004. That perhaps might be right,
since the recordings here on 'Rinpoche' were improvised in 2002. Birds Of Tin had releases on Manifold, Solipsism, Mystery Sea and
XZF. What Oates does here is pretty much outside the lines of Hypnos: no finely woven tapestries of synthesizers, but a likewise finely
woven pattern of all sorts of heavily treated sound objects. Lots of echo and reverb on the tea cups that is. Two pieces, together spanning
some seventy-five minutes, whereas one would have been enough. Another difference is the improvisational aspect of the music, also not
unlike Hypnos. Birds Of Tin seems to me a man who loves his record collection - don't we all - and particularly records by zoviet*france
and to a lesser extent Rapoon. Sometimes things are a bit too haphazard in the way its put together, but then in other moments he proofs to
be capable of producing a nice tune. A pair of scissors to splice the tape would be handy though."
--Reviewed by Frans DeWaard, Vital Weekly
Track listing (with mp3 sample clips):
1 mp3
2 mp3
Purchase direct for $9.99
Reviews
"Birds Of Tin is the one man project of Brooke Oates and there has been no new release since 2004. That perhaps might be right, since the recordings here on 'Rinpoche' were improvised in 2002. Birds Of Tin had releases on Manifold, Solipsism, Mystery Sea and XZF. What Oates does here is pretty much outside the lines of Hypnos: no finely woven tapestries of synthesizers, but a likewise finely woven pattern of all sorts of heavily treated sound objects. Lots of echo and reverb on the tea cups that is. Two pieces, together spanning some seventy-five minutes, whereas one would have been enough. Another difference is the improvisational aspect of the music, also not unlike Hypnos. Birds Of Tin seems to me a man who loves his record collection - don't we all - and particularly records by zoviet*france and to a lesser extent Rapoon. Sometimes things are a bit too haphazard in the way its put together, but then in other moments he proofs to be capable of producing a nice tune. A pair of scissors to splice the tape would be handy though."
--Reviewed by Frans DeWaard, Vital Weekly
.
"An animal of altogether different character is Birds of Tin, the pseudonym under which experimental sound artist Brooke Oates records. His Hypnos Secret Sounds debut Rinpoche features two long untitled improvisations, the first forty minutes and the second thirty-five, recorded in 2002 and with no post-recording editing performed. On the evidence of Rinpoche, the Birds of Tin style might be characterized as “aquatic” as episodes swim through the dense mix, each one slowly supplanting the other; “phantasmagoric” might be an even better descriptor, given the heady manner with which sounds and samples continually intermingle and change shape in these ultra-dense collages. Oates seems to have an encyclopedic library at his fingertips: the opening piece includes episodes of soft chanting, faint industrial rhythms grinding in the distance while bright synth glissandi flit rapidly about in the foreground, the deep moan of a choir, percussive rattles, child-like whispers, the elegant playing of a string orchestra, the bright waver of an alto saxophone, techno-styled thrums of lapping clicks, and so on. The “heavier” track two opens with an extended drone passage of intense flurries that evokes the relentless churn at a cyclone's center but the track eventually settles into a more even-tempered, neo-psychedelic state with vinyl crackle, electrical resonance, percussive noise, and aggressive swirls taking turns in the spotlight. If anything, the second piece moves Oates' music away from ambient territory completely and pushes it in the direction of Philip Jeck's woozy vinyl-based constructions (a few inexplicable seconds of singing even surfaces at the half-hour mark)."
--Reviewed by textura.org