If you see a concert advertising a band called “The Wilford Brimleys”, you would expect them to be a pop music parody band centering around the famed actor, Quaker Oats spokesperson and Liberty Medical diabetes testing supply spokesperson, right? Wrong. The Wilford Brimleys, despite the name, are not a pop music parody band, and their not even a “band”, per se. The Wilford Brimleys is a solo project of Chicago, Illinois-based musician Zachary Mark, the founder of the noise music label Car Wash Tapes. The album I’m reviewing from this project is the album Stock Optics, which was originally released in an edition of 50 CDr’s in November 2008, before being officially published on the Car Wash Tapes Bandcamp page, which is where I listened to the album.
Stock Optics consists of experimental electronic music that is simply harsh noise and power electronics. I’m not familiar with most harsh noise artists (but I am familar with Hanatarash, who are from Japan), and I’m not at all a fan of power electronics (a genre pioneered by the English group Whitehouse back in the late 1970’s), because despite being a subgenre of experimental music, most power electronics songs, like those from Whitehouse, can be too loud, lyrically offensive, and they also have too much harsh, loud, and rather uninteresting sounds for my autistic ears. However, I’m going to make an exception with The Wilford Brimleys and this album. Well, the name of the band is rather hilarious, and the music on Stock Optics is much more diverse than most power electronics artists because it has no offensive lyrics, has abstract/weird titles and themes, has more interesting sounds, and like the album’s cover art, has a tendency to be psychedelic at times. However, because of the loudness of the album, I have to listen to it with the volume at near-quiet level. I’m going to describe each of the album’s six tracks.
“Toast Weapons”-The opening number consists of a loop of a distorted female voice saying “toast weapons” that increases heavily in feedback and reverb, along with an electronic tone that sounds like it came from a Farfisa organ. This is what I would call the freak-out equivalent of Alvin Lucier’s musique concrete composition I am Sitting in a Room.
“Valid Boohiss”-This piece features what appears to be a chopped-up-and-slowed-down distorted voice, sounding like a Decepticon after he drank too much caffeine. A bunch of random electronic noises also appear in the midst of the strange junk, such as what sounds like a motorcycle revving and high-pitched frequencies. It later becomes a total noise chaos.
“Threed.vbx”-What sounds like distorted electric organ tones appear throughout this track, along with crackly synth noises. Distorted malfunctioning-robot like noises also appear, with some revving effects. The distorted fake organ continues, but this time with a more white noise tone. It ends with another malfunctioning-robot freak-out.
“Do You Like Me Yes No”-Watery electronic loops appear, eventually becoming a barking synth jam that evolves into pure anarchist electro-noise.
“Chaleco Salvavidas”-Despite its name, this isn’t Latin American-style music. This track has watery, futuristic, and sometimes ethereal (but loud) noise effects that, like what you hear in “Threed.vbx”, sounds like a pile of malfunctioning robots.
“Stock Optics”-The closing title track has ring-modulated electronic tones along with some synth sounds. It later features distorted synth noises, but this time, it is not a white noise freak-out. There’s also some clanging noises, too. The piece ends with a distorted synth outro that ends with a droning tone.
As I stated, be careful when listening to this album on Bandcamp, because it sure is loud! Try listening to it with the volume at the near-quiet mode.
Here’s the link: http://carwashtapes.bandcamp.com/album/stock-optics
The Crazy Mind of Tré Roland 