Jana Winderen - The Noisiest Guys On The Planet (Ash International, 2009)

Jana Winderen - Side A


I'M BACK BRITCHES! I have an epic back log of shit to write about, so there might be a sacrifice in quality to catch up in quantity. But whatever happens, I hope to be shedding light upon things you might otherwise not have heard of. I thought I'd start the new year off with one of the stranger tapes I picked up lately, Jana Winderen's The Noisiest Guys On The Planet.

I have a special place in my heart for people who are able to make field recordings of the most innocuous sounds and create fantastic music out of it. Add Winderen to that list. The Noisiest Guys is seemingly straightforward; it's just a tape of shrimp sounds. Done.

However not even shrimp scientists (they exist) know exactly what these sounds are. Not everybody agrees, but the general consensus is that they're feeding. But I can assure you there are sounds on here that are not eating noises. Like that deep terrifying thunder rumble. Wtf is that? The ominous and eventual arrival of the kraken to feast upon millions of shrimp, most likely (fact: kraken eat shrimp).

So there's plenty of mystery surrounding these noisy guys and that's cool. Everyone loves a little mystery cloaking. But forget that for a minute. Pretend you know everything there is to know about this tape and there's zero magic involved. IT'S STILL AWESOME. The crackling and popping, the rumbling and squeaking, the hissing and rushing make this one of the best ambient electronic albums ever. Except not. 'Cause it's shrimp. And that makes it better.

P.S. Winderen drew that little shrimp dude. +10