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Hi all, Just to show some evidence of fairness and that I am just as likely to deflate my own party balloon as blow it up. I thought it might be instructive to share a recent negative review my CD has gotten. I've passed along a few of the positive ones from time to time (as I have been pretty darned pleased to get them) and thought I'd distribute this one as well. It's really quite funny in it's own way. And besides, even bad publicity is still publicity -- or so they say. Anyway, I have a question for everybody at the bottom of all of this (should you get there). I'm also including a "translation" of another review I got from a publication in Lithuania a while back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- If Terminator 2's evil robot played Morricone-styled guitar to the accompaniment of loops of questionable tonality, it'd sound like Ted Killian. Despite the lofty philosophical statement that graces the sleeve of Flux Aeterna (adorned with mathematical symbols, natch), this is an album that wants only to stand in front of an amp stack and wail, albeit in a slightly mechanical, dystopian way. The tunes on this disc are all vaguely soundtrackesque. For some reason, I was put in mind of the Cronenberg flick Videodrome while listening; the whole idea of a disintegrating future, of some kind of technological breakdown is communicated in these tunes so successfully that it's difficult to believe that there isn't a piece of film that goes with them. "Leaving Medford" is an edgy, angry piece of work, leaving no doubt in the listener's mind that the future's fucked, and Ted's here with his newscasting guitar to tell you all about it. "Cauterant Baptism", on the other hand, uses the depressive tone to rock out: it begins with some loose space-cowboy noodling, then turns into a late-Bowie toned behemoth, with a stomping bassline and searing guitar that threaten to rip off your ears. Not as truly astringent as other guitar-wielding noiseniks, Killian seems to always keep some sense of the tune inside his world-o'-shred. While this makes you crave more spark in his playing --occasionally, it can sound more like he's practicing for the real deal more than experiencing it -- it's satisfying to have something to hold on to amid the sonic excursions. The propensity for albums like Flux Aeterna to devolve into nothing more than shredwank isn't entirely sidestepped here -- there are a couple of moments when one imagines that Ted's giving Steve Vai a run for his gurning-while-fretboard- whizzing money -- but thankfully, these instances of cringe aren't too long-lived when they occur. The weakness with ambient/experimental guitar tunes is that they can fall into the "Hey! I've played that in my bedroom before!" trap. Whether this is a welcome familiarity in the world of anonymous rock, or merely annoying when you've forked over money for the disc, is a personal call, but let's just say that if it's the latter, you might want to give this disc a miss. That said, it's a strong album -- there are some good ideas here -- but just don't be surprised if you find yourself digging out your guitar and an EBow after giving it a spin. Luke Martin, http://www.splendidezine.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- A few months ago I got a review from a Lithuanian print magazine called "Tango" and asked the list if anybody new a translator. Well, I finally got a translation on my own from an online outfit. I am still not sure the translation is quite right because it sounds so darned academic, but here goes... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Linas, Tango Magazine, Lithuania, October, 2001 I did not manage to find any additional information on this musician, so material received previously from pfMENTUM is the only context in which it is possible to present this musician and his new work. pfMENTUM is a small record label based in California and specializing in modern experimental and extemporaneous music. Tango has reviewed records of this firm before. From the small amount of given works, it is possible to make conclusions and suppose that this work, “Flux Aeterna,” fits into a frame of aesthetics introduced by this publisher on other occasions. Like the previous records, it is issued in unique and unusual packing (even in a box), like the musical concepts it contains, along with the cryptic motto: "Change equals hope. Hope equals change." It's obvious, that Ted Killian is a musician who has grown and matured under the influence of the school of effects (guitar of the seventies and eighties) especially from the peripheral aesthetic point of view of repetitive minimalism, plus an extensive musical heritage -- without which musical (not only guitars) thinking and interpretation would be impossible -- in electro/acoustic music and urbanized blues. But, such a generalized set of references certainly doesn't explain anything to us. Listening to the given work, I cannot escape being reminded of one persistent idea: It is clear that not one popular band has survived the speeding 50-year long evolution of the electric guitar. Nonetheless, it is natural that different crumbs of this history can be found in the vocabulary of any musician who knows it from experience rather than from second hand. Among these fashionable musicians we can also rank Ted Killian -- who's music is vigorous and mysterious with wide and multi-channeled overlappings designed around electronic musical effects. Here one can reference such luminaries as Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Robert Fripp and Glenn Branca. There is distortion, overloaded "phasing", different from the electronic effects approaches that which the former bluesmen have passed on to us, and their aesthetic marks (also well known: progressive chords and dynamism). Add "Fripertonic" overlappings of sounds and feedback, a minimized figure of a rhythm and "ostinatic" motifs and you have a formula for the next plan. All this is easily read, without claims and is a result of "converging" music with original Ted Killian characteristics and an exacting feeling of the form --all-in-all, worthy of note -- and I actually recommend listening to this modern guitar music. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- So, here are two reviews -- one more or less negative and one more or less positive --and neither one of these guys really seems to understand what he's listening too -- or at least neither one really seems to understand what caused the music to be made in the first place (me). Did I make a mistake in being rather stingy on the liner notes? Should I have said more? Not that it really matters -- the CD is still something I'm pretty proud of. I continue to be astonished that it has gotten any attention at all. Given the recent thread concerning the idea that we might (or might not) take some time to explain ourselves and our techniques and/or concepts to an audience before a performance how does one go about handling liner notes? The press kit that went out with my CD had more info about the label pfMENTUM than about me. Was that a mistake? It's not the reviewer's fault that I'm a somewhat unknown entity. But I'm also neither a wannabe bedroom shredmeister nor an academically trained composer/ musical philosopher. Both are way off from my point of view... and pretty substantially to boot. Is this sort of thing unavoidable? Anywho, thanks for your time. Ted Killian