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!
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.
Finally, I haven’t been able to find a recording, but thank you to Kat O’Rly for playing “Literature Review” on WLUW’s Destination Unknown last night.
Elizabeth Joan Kelly 