The ever popular Qbico label has a brace of new wacked-out, head-splintering shit (meaning "good shit") out on limited wax. This Italian imprint has been unleashing sonic curiosities and bizarre chunks of garish vinyl for quite some time now. There's an album of fascinating field recording/live improv by a certain Mike Cooper in my pile. I really can't be arsed to comment too much on it as the man's own words below strike me as more than apt and I'd just make a total hash of describing it! The fuzzy aviary sounds underlying the sonic rumble of glitch and the smattering of primal techno beats are most soothing, you get the idea that he's monging people's heads off in a cool arty space & you really want to just buy the record or be transported back to NY 2000. Here are Mike's musings on the experience...."Live at the Hint House might be considered a field rec. in as much as it is a recording of an ambience or soundscape. Made on my first ever trip to mainland America to play music this is the 2nd set of that evening, the 1st set had been an acoustic one of songs and slide guitar. At the start of the 2nd set i quickly realised that my guitar was not working and rather than stop and attempt to find out what was wrong i decided to just continue and improvise with what was at hand on the table in front of me. A Casio SK1 sampler keyboard, a Yamhaha SU10 sampling unit with some pre-recorded samples loaded, a mini disc with some tropical ambience rec. from Malaysia and a pitch shifter delay pedal. I was not very happy with what happened that night and when Matt Zwed gave me two CD-Rs the next day i don't remember giving much attention to the 2nd set. Five years on, coincidently to the day as i write this, i realized he had captured more than me trying to get through the piece. It was me, the people in the room, the dog that ran around barking, the traffic sounds coming through the door that was open right behind me and a whole host of magically transported tropical birds and insects that suddenly found themselves reciting whatever it was in the loft space on the edge of Harlem, competing or colluding with all of the above to produce a piece of urban exotica." Mike Cooper
