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the complete no noise reduction

Cover: The Complete No Noise Reduction (1995)

Moneyland records, MR$ 0495 (CD, 1995).

Produced by No Noise Reduction.
Recorded between SEP 1990 and AUG 1993 at PF's place (Caldas da Rainha) or RT's place Lisbon).

complete track listing

1. WHERE ARE WE GOING? AND WHAT ARE WE DOING? 1'40" excerpt from a 4-simultaneous-texts lecture by John Cage (1961).
2. PEACE BOOST 1'25" PF- noise burst guitar, random tape edits RT- bowed cymbals, mute switching, mariachi-tuned silvertone guitar
3. TWISTER BLUESY 2'24" Raquel Feliciano- wired harmonica RT- harmonica wire jamming, keyboard (sinewave) PF- les paul guitar, harmonica wire jamming
4. CD PLAYERS 1'14" the sound source is not the disc, but the mechanical sounds of the player PF- cd player RT- sampler (cd player)
5. ARTSCRATCH 1'04" RT- silvano turntable, videotape PF- sunny-vox turntable, videotape
6. TWO LOVING GUITARS 1'00" PF- two guitars touching each other
7. VYNIL-A-CRISP (NO NOISE REDUCTION No. 2) 1'17" RT- vynil records, sampler (vynil records) PF- sampler (vynil records), vynil records
8. BLACK CDTH 1'46" PF- prepared compact disc the prepared compact disc is a CD with narrow slices of tape stuck in the back. the laser beam stumbles on them and behaves in very unpredictable ways.
9. ONE GUITAR . . 1'43" one take recorded with us two playing on the same guitar. RT- wet finger rubbing, metal scraping PF- guitar strings
10. TWILIGHT ZONE 1'54" PF- guitar feedbacks, turntable RT- guitar, feedback treatments
11. STEWART MIX 1'59" the first thing ever recorded by nnr RT- roland TR 808, guitar, turntable PF- guitar, sampler
12. GROOVE GRINDER 0'50" PF- sunny-vox turntable RT- silvano turntable
13. BOOTS RANDOM 1'38" RT- 808, processing, turntable PF- 808, sampler, hifi switch (turntable)
14. THE A2000 SPEECH 2'02" pronounciation errors were generated by the software, left to itself PF- a2000 voice generator and sampling software RT- inverted guitar, modulated video monitor radiation
15. EVERYONE ELSE'S UNIVERSE 1'45" RT- sampler, videotape PF- drum machine programming, guitar, sampler
16. GUITAR THING 0'59" PF- guitar RT- turntable
17. MOTORWAY 2'04" RT- sampler (jeep), beat box, mystery tape recycling, guitar PF- guitar solo, fake bass
18. CARUSO REFLECTOR 1'28"
PF, RT- shaving machine-excited cymbals, microphone scanning, turntable 19. SONIC SPRING 1'38": RT- spring resonator
20. GHOST 0'45" PF- sampler RT- guitar Raquel Feliciano- clusters guitar
21. GOING UP? 1'32" RT- contact microphone-recorded elevators PF- early tape, mxr noise gate
22. NEGATIVE SUNDAY 2'05" PF- prepared guitar, sampler (bells) RT- turntable, sampler
23. LANDSCAPE GENERATOR 2'03" RT- computer games PF- computer games
24. NOT ENOUGH ATOMS 1'05" PF- korg synthesizer, sampler RT- aliased guitar, r5, midi jamming
25. SCRATCH FILTER 1'19" RT- roland r5 beat box, turntable, filtering PF- turntable, filtering
26. THE INCREDIBLE MARVIN 1'02" PF- prepared compact disc
27. A, PATTI, B 1'21" a 7" single found broken in two halves glued back facing opposite sides RT, PF- turntable
28. FEET PIECE 1'25" no hands here PF- guitars (played with the feet) RT- foot pedals, footswitches
29. DIE AND LIVE 4'45" RT- guitars PF- voice, sampler (bass)
30. HAM-A-RING 1'36" PF- prepared guitars RT- prepared guitars
31. STOP LOOPIN' AROUND (exit) 0'06" RT- 808, sampler PF- records, sampler
32. THE SECOND GHOST 0'39" PF- guitar RT- guitar
33. JIMI SETS THE SAMPLE ON FIRE 1'02" RT- guitar PF- sampler (fire), guitar
34. NO NOISE REDUCTION 0'33" PF- noise RT- noise
35. TOY CLOUD 2'32" RT- guitar PF- sampler (little music box)
36. PLASSTICK 0'20" PF- mouth-taped plastic mic RT- radio
37. TALKING HEADS 1'43" hand-held tape playback heads gestually reading magnetic tape panels on the wall. a mono recording. RT- tape head PF- tape head
38. YR BACKYARD 0'52" PF- prepared guitar RT- field recording, prepared guitar
39. INTRO, THE GROOVE, 2'00" RT- turntables, sample edits, midi PF- scratch eq, r5 prog
40. 0'0,060" FOR A ROCK'N'ROLL BAND 0'06" tina and the top ten blasting at full volume for 60 milliseconds. PF- guitar Falcon D- drums Captain MD- bass Johnny "boy" Santini- guitar Mimi - silent RT- precision edit
41. SHOOTING ASLEEP 3'17" two e-bowed guitar duets; paulo actually fell asleep while recording one of them RT, PF- guitars
42. SOUTH WARP 6 0'43" RT- revox A77 tape recorder
43. LICKABILITY 2'44" RT- drone guitar PF- sampler (his voice), guitar
44. ECHO DOGS 1'37" PF- television, field recording RT- drums, field recording, processing
45. SWEETEST VOLTAGE 3'00" RT- resonating fender jaguar, analog delayed ibañez. PF- prepared gibson les paul deluxe, fender jaguar
46. NO NOISE REDUCTION No. 3 0'00" open

reviews

"Eliminar la idea del ruído usando éste con un propósito musical". Así definen Paulo Feliciano y Rafael Toral el proyecto No Noise Reduction, formado en 1990, y cuyo premier CD, publicado hace unos meses, recopila la gran mayoría de experimentos realizados por el dúo entre Caldas da Rainha y Lisboa. Los Materiales empleados para este sano fin deconstructivista incluyen lectores de CD, giradiscos, interferencias de monitores de vídeo, samplers, discos de vinilo… Una batidora feroz que engulle, con respecto pero sin autorización, fragmentos de Jimi Hendrix, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Marvin Gaye, Black Sabbath o Stereo MCs, y que acude a escritos de artistas multimedia como John Cage, Jenny Holzer, Cindy Sherman o Joseph Beuys. El resultado, cuarenta y seis disparos de esquizofrenia sonora donde son passados por el tamiz noise los conceptos de heavy metal, ópera, ambient, soul, disco music, country o rock'n'roll. En los momentos más extremos, la pureza letal del ruido blanco, manchas de poluición auditiva creando un lenguage casi armónico a partir del caos y la disonancia. El gran mérito de No Noise Reduction está en exponer y resolver sus ideas huyendo de posturas plúmbeas e intelectualísmos elitistas. El sentido del humor y la coherencia interna del proyecto hacen de este trabajo una de las escasas obras donde adjectivos como experimental o vanguardia pueden ser usados prescindiendo por completo de la sombre del aburrimiento, de ese lastre mortal que desprenden los artilugios realizados exclusivamente para saciar el ego de sus creadores.

Juan Cervera, Rock de Lux Dec. 95

Eis um disco do qual tudo o que se disser pode ser mal interpretado. The complete No Noise Reduction pretende ser a história (in)completa dos No Noise Reduction, núcleo de agitação sonora constituído por João Paulo Feliciano, dos Tina and The Top Ten e Rafael Toral, ex-Pop ddell'Arte e produtor do até À data único álbum dos Tina. Este é uma espécie de manual de manipulação sonora, estilo "faça você mesmo". DE samples dos Stereo MCs a Jimi Hendrix, passando por cães a ladrar, leitores de CD propositadamente avariados, guitarras tocadas com os pés e um single da Patti Smith partido e colado ao contrário, por aqui passa de tudo, mesmo os Tina and The Top Ten a tocarem raivosamente durante 60 milésimos de segundo. Podíamos dizer que este é um disco experimental, mas isso seria mais ou menos o mesmo que dizer qoe o cavalo é um quadrúpede. Inqualificável e por vezes bastante divertido.

Isilda Sanches, Diário de Notícias, Jun. 95

In a sense Portuguese duo Paulo Feliciano and Rafael Toral put Gunderson's concept and attitude cheerfully into musical practice. They use just about any object associated with pop culture as their instruments. As is stated in one of the pieces, they have "borrowed from everyone else's universe". The forty-six tracks, ranging from zero seconds (it is cued as such) to an exceptionally long 4' 45", defy any description that would attempt to do justice to the variety in approaches and sounds resulting from them, and to the wit and the humor with which this album has been put together. A few scant examples should suffice. Toral and Feliciano realized a piece that everyone whose musical awareness predates the digital era must have fantasized about: glue the halves of a broken record together so that the playing area has a side A and a side B component, then play the record. On another cut, Groove Grinder, they play scratchy runout grooves. They make some heavenly sounds with tones of a music box played with serious warpage from a sampler and a sustain guitar. They rebound the whish and whoosh from an amplified spring coil by wringing it back and forth through a sampler and entitle that in poetic jest Sonic Spring. This work is nothing short of inspired. The shining new wheelbarrow pictured on the cover illustrates what may well be their motto: "The tools you use are just as pure and clean as the use you put them to".

René van Peer, Experimental Music Instruments, June 1999