And there’s an extremely perceptive track-by-track review of the album up on listencorp (we expect nothing less!). My favorite part:
Reaching an ecclesiastical euphoria of harmonies and echoes, the voice doles out thank you’s from the creators of the course. After which things descend into instrumental chaos with glissando notes filling the soundscape, ending the course on an emphatic and almost ornate note tied off with a twinkling swish of pixellated bells at the very end.
Woke up this morning to quite a few happy notifications. First, Monolith Cocktail has a great write-up of C.M.S.O. This lovely excerpt should get you to want to read the whole thing:
A writer of repute on the failures of tech, communication and self-preservation, Rodriguez (who also files his musical experiments under Alison’s Disapproval) lends a constantly filtered and affected spoken word narration across all six tracks as Kelly swans, touches the ethereal with her diaphanous woos, calls, arias (a merger of Laurie Anderson, cosmic opera and Jane Weaver). Often transmogrified by robotic effects and the slowing and speeding up of that instructive monologue, Rodriguez’s message is constantly warped, broken up: sometimes on the verge of some Max Headroom glitch stutter, or the slurred falling apart speech of HAL.
*Achievement unlocked: Max Headroom comparison!
Max Headroom
We also seem to have successfully stumped Vital Weekly, who write of the album:
The music is mostly a computer treated voice/vocoder style, and along with some electronics playing some weird tune. The six pieces last altogether less than 19 minutes, which is perhaps the best thing for such a little curiosity. Great for confusion and confused to know what to say.
Vital Weekly also put out a podcast highlighting the music they’ve reviewed; be sure to check it out.
Thanks to WTUL for another week with Farewell, Doomed Planet! on the charts. A year and a half after its release, it’s clocking in at no. 17 overall and no. 3 electronic. And congratulations on a successful marathon!
Current listening: this very cool mix by Secret13 and Ilias on the Secret Communications show on Cashmere Radio that also includes “Abstract” off C.M.S.O.
Orca, Attack!’s C.M.S.O. is now out on Strategic Tape Reserve. There are only 3 cassettes left, and the digital album is also available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and wherever else you like to listen.
Autumn Roses spotlights the song “Conclusion” on their blog today, writing, “today their Orca, Attack! project released the surreal and psychedelic “listening guide” C.M.S.O. (Learning by Listening Vol. 1). You can take an apricot-colored, helix-shaped trip with its “Conclusion” above.”
Wow–Farewell, Doomed Planet! is on the WTUL charts for the NINETEENTH TIME, coming in at #29 overall and #7 electronic. I’m speechless. A thousand thanks to all the DJs. WTUL’s “not quite 51st annual rock on survival marathon” is going on right now, so it’s a great time to donate! Furthermore, if you email me and let me know you’ve donated, I’ll send you a Bandcamp download code for the album of your choice from my releases. Offer expires in seven days!
Thanks to the straight up legend herself Kate Bosworth for including “Introduction” from C.M.S.O. on this week’s episode of Dark Train on Warminster Community Radio, now up on Mixcloud: (and tracklist on Twitter)
Elizabeth Joan Kelly 