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Title:  Clockwork Artist:  Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim - Various Artists Label:  Room40 Format:  mCD Price:  € 8.90   Mp3 samples:   1

Title Description:
Raised on a diet of several decadesÕ worth of renegade creatives and neglected masterpieces, weÕre all wise to the disappearing-act that an artistÕs back catalogue can perform - doubly so if their financial and/or artistic imperatives lead them to micro-release and micro-format their prodigious output. Whether this is the ultimate in commodity fetishism or an over-aestheticisation of the potlatch syndrome, this process lends the private press/limited-up-the-wazoo document the kind of once-debased aura or mystique reserved for the gallery edition. Uncover the mystery, they say, and you uncover the glory. And then - with the over-prescribed nature of undiscoveredgem glorification rendering the actual music somewhat underwhelming - it disappears into the air, helium balloons dropping back down from the heavens... This is, however, no great concern vis-ˆ-vis Oren Ambarchi and Robbie AvenaimÕs sucker-punch to the solar plexus, Clockwork. Its initial release - an edition of 100 3 CD-Rs on AmbarchiÕs Jerker Productions label back in 1999 - let it slide by just enough aesthetic radars to register among cognoscenti. Coupled with AmbarchiÕs solo work from the era, the recording marked a shift from the gonzo-rock of the duoÕs previous band, Phlegm. Things happen throughout Clockwork that had never really happened before. Recorded in front of a live audience for that Ôwhat we did on our holidaysÕ feel, Avenaim and Ambarchi unravel their detourned instrumental panoply into a series of parallel universe propositions - (ie. If AmbarchiÕs concurrent vinyl-only Stacte series was Alvin Lucier and Cluster collaborating for Mego, then Clockwork is Mickey HartÕs Gamelan Orchestra performing Ionisation.)

Vital Review: