VARIOUS ARTISTS
High Mayhem 2005 Festival Mix CD
High Mayhem Records
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"We have to fight the homogenizing nature of mass media," exhorts a buoyant Max Friedenberg, director of High Mayhem Emerging Arts, at the start of High Mayhem's latest recorded risky venture, a mix compilation of last year's entire High Mayhem Emerging Arts Festival. The 2005 event unfolded over three days and featured more than 25 performers and untold hours of recording, in keeping with the organization's commitment to complete documentation. Previous festivals are available on a music CD crammed full of brief excerpts and a CD-ROM containing mp3s of the complete performances from all participants. This year High Mayhem decided to tap five sound artists, give them access to every minute of recorded glory from the '05 event and create 10- to 14-minute mix reinterpretations. The results are stunning, engaging, hilarious, mysterious and surprising.
JA Deane, Menage a Un, Impact Test Dummy, Walker and CK Barlow each contribute a remix interpretation of the festival. Deane's seamless, vital and multifarious "The New Surrealists" taps Gary Mex Glazner's impassioned spoken-word performance; an hour later, CK Barlow's spacious, impeccably balanced mix sees Glazner emerging again. Walker's track retains the sonic density of the festival while crafting some serious funk, a sophisticated "High Mayhem Festival Dance Mix." Impact Test Dummy goes for thorns, spikes, layers and short bursts, the festival rendered as a speeding train hurtling past repeatedly on a tiny oval track. Menage a Un overlayers a restless drum 'n' bass (from the ghost world, or dreamtime) mixed behind a silvery, shimmering wash. Each mix is absolutely unique, reflecting the sound sculptor's aesthetic while at the same time honoring the startling range and variety of the event itself. The CD succeeds at simultaneously documenting and re-creating the buzz of High Mayhem's three days of peace and madness.
