Voted into the top 100 independent releases of 1989 by 'Factsheet Five'
Review in GAJOOB:
What makes this tape exceptional is This Window's effective use of the tape recorder as an instrument in itself; as part of the means towards the end result that is Jude the Obscure. Using things that are not normally musical and teaming them with normally musical things. I hear -- the construction of something tangible rather than throwing different things together and letting them lie to form their own construction in the listener's ears out of confusion. On Jude the Obscure singular sounds have a beauty you might not expect. A slashing distorted guitar and a bustling bar, both separate events brought together, comment on each other. It is that sort of interplay that reveals the wonder in this tape.
More Reviews: Gajoob ... Stick It In Your Ear
Notes by T/W:
Jude the Obscure" was released in May 1989 and is the second solo release by T/W on M4TR and is seen as a natural progression from the first tape 'Hope', which was released twelve months before. The songs on Jude are more inventive and the recording style more experimental e.g., the use of different speeds, machines, tape types with and without noise reduction, the use of microphones (different types in various different rooms)at one point the whole house became the studio, the bathroom the live room, the bedroom the dead room, etc. The most important thing about JTO is that these diverse factors combine together to create a whole product in which traditional songs of melody and musical structure combine with experimentation to compliment each other and the bitch is raw in places The use of instruments on JTO creates a bizarre effect, one minute a crazy AXEMAN guitar will disappear into a didgeridoo droning underneath a flute and eastern drum and the next a floating female vocal will be echoed by a telephone answer machine. The whole experience was a great adventure. |
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