GILGONGO RECORDS

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JAMES FELLA / TIMELOAD FOWL - split LP (GGGR-031).

JAMES FELLA | TIMELOAD FOWL.
James Fella (Soft Shoulder, Tent/City) offers a live recording from May 2009: Shifted sax, crackling electronics and skeletal guitar drifting across 18 minutes of crowded, Ye Olde Bike Saviors Co-Op living room sound. Debut vinyl release from Timeload Fowl, sound / noise project of the already established visual artist, R. Sawyer of San Luis Obispo: grim, bleak, but secretly meditative and beautiful.
Includes a collaboration with James that offers more of a thick brutal / buried approach. Short run LP, art by R. Sawyer (Rainbath Art).
MP3s: samples from James' side | Timeload Fowl - collab with James Fella.

select reviews:

Auxiliary Out:
Here I am being my usual tardy-ass self reviewing this LP that came out around 6 or 7 months ago I think. Better late than never, right? Hopefully.

Based on my experience with James Fella's solo work, it seems like he likes to recycle and remold random old recordings into something new. It's a process that's certainly been working for him but I was excited to see what he's like in live-performance mode rather than editor mode on the side-long live recording "5/14/09." As it turns out he's pretty damn good, maybe even being better in the live environment. Using sax, guitar and electronics Fella kicks things off with a whining thicket of distorted sax. I'm pretty sure that's the starting point but things get a bit twisted and pitch-shifted and so on by Fella's electronic gizmos. There's definitely some looping going on here but Fella does a good job obscuring which sounds are actually loops and which are live. Is the rumbling mound of distortion really a sax solo? I think so, but who can really tell what's going on in the Fellaverse. Soon, dips and swoops become a thick broad crunch without losing the melodic nuances underneath, not totally dissimilar from what the Yellow Swans did so well. At some point, Fella breaks everything up and starts fresh on a saxophone solo that's more feedback than instrument. As that fades, Fella whips of a guitar web of jingles, tinkles and drones. Though it starts out clean-toned, the flames of fuzz come a-lickin' eventually as a dizzying frenzy of guitar loops sets in. A mildly atonal arpeggio resurges though, overtaking the track with its wobbly windchime effect. The LP goes out on a nice aquatic percussive bit giving the piece as a whole a real nice arc as well as showcasing Fella's serious versatility.

The side by San Luis Obispo artist, Timeload Fowl, is parsed into three unadventurously named tracks. "Intro" comes alive with a round synth tone swelling in and out with some rather noisy work overlaid on top. The piece becomes gradually more complex as it moves along without ever relinquishing its mellow, chilly vibe. Really well-done and self-assured piece. "Untitled" bursts forth with noisy electronics. There's some barked vocals at the beginning that I don't really go for and the piece as a whole is a bit more fierce than "Intro." Though its noisier, it manages to attain the same calmness of its predecessor. Subtle synths move behind the distortion. Weird sorts of textures result, some chime-like while others sounds similar to a bassy string section. The piece sounds more and more open as it progresses, unfurling into an empty wasteland before contracting and cutting itself off. The final piece "Collaboration w/ James Fella" is just that. Thick distortion crackles along until a lone guitar starts a-strummin'. A fuzzy synth counters it. The track pretty quickly takes a different shape from everything else on the record. It flirts with doom metal vibes but it's too devoid of bullshit to be lumped in with all the "demonic" brethren. The guitar (sounds like a baritone possibly) lays out a great progression, the synth links up with a nice melody and then the sax starts blowing rippling sheets of sound. It's totally melodic and totally hypnotic. My favorite moment of the record. From there things breakdown into a sax/percussion freakout still shrouded heavily in distortion until they blip themselves off the screen. I'm jonesin' for some more of this Timeload Fella, how about a full LP next time? Thanks.
This record is still in print at Gilgongo it looks like and its a totally justifiable pickup so get on it. Who knows when these two estimable artists will share another LP. Comes in blank white jacket with wrap-around poster/cover and a full-size insert.

Foxy Digitalis:
This unassuming little joint is an apropos pairing of like minds, with the ultimate effect of demonstrating the possibilities in eerie and fucked-up atmospherics. Like a psychotic episode from Dahmer’s book of nightmares, this split presents two sides of contrasting darkness. This record is schizophrenic, yes—but altogether the two sides are complimentary, making for a consistently uneasy jaunt into the land of live experimental music and noise.

The brief liner notes credit Fella with saxophone, electronics, and guitar, so the squelchy thing that I hear leading us into this 17-minute chaos blast must be that aforementioned sax. It begins harmlessly enough, but by the time the needle is an inch closer to the label, we have progressed to full-bore torture. The squeals of the saxophone are stifled by the crumbling electronic landslide, low-frequency static eventually giving way to high-frequency squeals that sound like bastard children of the sax-on-synth tryst. Things break down completely then, leaving the noise trailing off into the tunnel, while tortured strings begin to take the stage. Through subtle delay and reverb, it sounds like Fella is plucking the part of the string between the nut and the pegs on the headstock of the guitar—not an altogether ingenious method, but it can have its place. But don’t get down on Fella’s guitar-work yet—he’s just started looping some heavily fucked-up manglings. Scraped and bent strings begin to come from left and right, leading us into a gentle but troubled land, where we take our rest finally, after this bizarre journey.

The segue from side A to side B is made beautifully with Timeload Fowl’s first piece, aptly titled “Intro”. Drones float us out into a placid sea while strange electronic scraps float by, maybe causing me to think that my destination will not be a pleasant one. Electronics and ‘amplified materials’ pepper this first track, and these random bursts are sometimes manifest in the way of full-blast feedback and sometimes in high-frequency sines. But maybe instead of pick apart the orchestration, you’d be better off just allowing yourself to be dazzled by the inevitable doom this track is bringing. As abruptly as that eerie drone ended, Timeload Fowl’s second piece begins. This one is a harsh sea of high-frequency sweeps, and the thing seems to be drenched largely in television snow. The vocals I could do without, but the chilling loops and tundra-sweeping synth pads are just the rub. The last piece is a collaboration between Timeload Fowl and James Fella, an appropriate arrangement, considering this is a Gilgongo production, after all. Electric guitar shredding cuts through some airy loops, and is accompanied by what sounds like a heavily-affected synthesizer. This final track is a simple one, and it actually seems to follow a kind of simple two-chord progression, lending it a somewhat epic quality. Just in time Fella’s manic saxophone makes its entrance, even shredding through the shredder (Zach Shredbetter on guitar, the liner notes say). A great closer to these 12” of terror. 7/10 -- Michael Jantz (24 March, 2010)

Vital Weekly:
A good old fashioned lo-fi released record with one band per side, with two xeroxes for the cover. On side A we find James Fella, who plays saxophone, electronics and guitar in this piece that was captured live on May 14th 2009. I am not sure how you could play a saxophone and a guitar at the same time, maybe the piece is split in two and now first have the saxophone in a noise session. Sounding like a less heavy Borbetomagus, but still with great fury and power. Then he slowly moves out of that and starts playing the guitar. Here he uses a more minimal approach, carefully plucking the strings in a highly atonal manner. There is only a minimal amount of electronics here, and its almost a melancholic ending here. Nice one.
On the other side Timeload Fowl. I am not sure if this a group or just one person. There is credit for loops, electronics, amplified materials, guitar, synth and vocals. The lengthy piece ‘Intro’ is a very fine ambient electronic music piece, whereas ‘Untitled’ (I admit they don’t have original titles) is a more noise based piece of howling electronics, the total opposite to the other piece. The third piece is called ‘Collaboration w/ James Fella’, which takes the noise edge a bit further, a bit too far if you ask me. Throughout however this is quite a pleasant album of improvised noise, with some surprising results. (FdW)