After his departure from Zoviet France and concurrent to his association with Download, Mark Spybey began treading even further into the abstract areas of sonic manipulation where the lines between music and noise are more than blurred. Since 1994, Dead Voices on Air has been defying categorization as labels such as ambient, noise, and industrial become both applicable and irrelevant, creating a sound so esoteric that even fans of the nightmarish audio realms of dark ambient would find it unsettling. After a long tenure with Invisible Records, DVoA has now found a new home on Lens Records, with Fast Falls the Eventide marking Spybey's debut with the label, not only treading forward, but also revisiting old ground; this two-disc set contains three tracks originally featured on the very first cassette release from 1994. And yet to hear the tracks off Abrader, including two previously unreleased tracks from that time period, both of which feature Download cohort cEvin Key on Moog and barrel drum, it would almost seem that nothing has changed for Dead Voices on Air in more than 15 years. From the looped feedback in lieu of a noisy percussive beat on "Concretion" giving way to the sampled radio static building upon itself into an explosive cacophonous climax on "Vaerglas," the Abrader tracks sound as current as the album proper.
It would be almost pointless to try to define DvoA's music in traditional terms, especially with Fast Falls the Eventide. As every track does possess its own identity, from the static radio noise and sustained bagpipe-like squelches atop a sparse beat that sounds akin to someone drumming on a tabletop on "Tear My Salt Eyes," to the almost horrifically modulated voices seemingly singing over a shuffling jazz beat on "Lol Doth Yeshu," and even to the almost screaming ambience swirls and distant ethnic sounds on "The Talomon Wire," the album runs as an almost continuous piece with each track bleeding seamlessly into the next. Of course, this is nothing new in the DvoA oeuvre, but what it accomplishes as ever for the listener is an abysmal and disquieting sense of unfamiliarity created from undoubtedly familiar sources. The sounds we hear steam from Spybey's experiments with sampling, found sounds, and pushing the limits of just what the human ear can withstand. Even as operatic voices feedback amid oscillating waves of atmospheric noise on the epic title track, it's easy to become lost in the sonic space and find oneself irresistibly drawn and at the same time repelled by the musical unknown. Fast Falls the Eventide presents everything Spybey has achieved throughout his 25 years exploring sound, and stands as a testament to his continued growth as an artist. While Dead Voices on Air is most certainly not for everybody, those up to the challenge will find this album to be a rewarding experience." - Ilker Yücel - Re-Gen Mag
Furthernoise.org - September 2009
Vital Weekly 699 - September 2009
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