Hal McGee My Brain
originally released on CDR on the HalTapes label in 2003
Just Look At The Mess I Have Made! (31:04) 192 kbps 42.6 MB mp3
Propagation Disturbation (46:33) 192 kbps 63.9 MB mp3
MY BRAIN is 77 minutes in length and consists of
two massive multi-tracked kaleidoscopic audio collages in the audio
trash sculpture mode: "Look At The Mess I Have Made!"
(31:04) and "Propagation Disturbation" (46:33).
Seemingly-random jumbled heaps and piles and accumulations
of sounds: piano improvisations, theremin, circuit bent Casio SK-1
and Speak & Spell, percussion, Moog Rogue analog synthesizer,
flute, Casio VA-10 keyboard, Radio Shack Moog synthesizer, shortwave
radio, Dark Star synth module (constructed by audio artist Dave
Fuglewicz), spoken word (me reading out loud from e-mails I have
sent, phrases from a poster in a veterinarian's office, random thoughts
and memories and associations, dream recollections, descriptions
of how the CD was constructed), audio tape field recordings of street
and public transportation sounds and my work and home environments
-- all mixified on a Fostex X-12 4-track cassette recorder and mastered
directly to compact disc.
Crazy, chaotic, an organized mess, kind of like a
finger painting in sound. You will discover something new every
time you listen to MY BRAIN, and I promise that you have never heard
anything quite like it. Highly personal and abstract at the same
time. Strong visual images in sound. Audio objects for your contemplation
-- you can observe these audio objects in much the same way you
would a painting or a sculpture or a random collection of objects
in a roadside ditch or a trash dumpster. You complete the audio
works by shaping them into sound forms in your mind. No beats, no
melodies.
The painting of me on the cover is by Jimmy McCullough.
review by Jerry Kranitz in the August 2003 issue of Aural Innovations:
Of the many Hal McGee recordings I've heard over the past year and a half, Wired For Sound remains one of my favorites (see AI #19). A non-stop sound art piece detailing his daily life, the album consists of pasted together field recordings, spoken word, and day to day activities that make for a completely non-musical but fascinating sound experience. My Brain comes pretty close to that experience, though it's also one of Hal's most musical, with two lengthy slabs of sound collage that will simultaneously challenge and fry, not the brain of the title, but that of the listener.
"Look At The Mess [That] I Have Made!" is a 31 minute piece with Hal glomming together spoken word, piano and synth noodlings, noise chaos, a banquet of sounds, and percussion from his brother Mark. Early in the recording Hal sets the tone by talking about the trivial sounds of everyday life that we ignore or try to ignore, the flow of consciousness chatter constantly going on in his head, shaping it all into sound forms, and promises a nice big chaotic mess. And Hal delivers on this promise. He brings together a parade of seemingly unrelated sounds... mad concert piano banging, wailing flutes or recorder, fluttering theremin, crashing percussion, efx'd voices, and lots of fun electro craziness. There are some quieter musical moments too where the focus is on the piano and percussion, giving it all a kind of insane asylum orchestral free-improv feel that I enjoyed.