DECAYCAST Reviews: Jeff Carey “Zero Player Game” (Ehse Records, 2018)

Jeff Carey‘s  2018 “Zero Player Game” which is actually out today synthesizes noise, cyberpunk concepts, and  abstract composition and  chance into a dark, heavy stew of experimental music. Carey’s sound on “Zero Player Game” is raw, fast moving, and uncompromising, at  times, sounding like a glitch-heavy classically inspired contemporary experimental music composition and other times bypassing the  dynamic and sharp ebbs and troughs for the all out sonic approach of mayhem. Carey’s sound oscillates between distinct and sonically intentional strategies. The sheer amount of  sonic spaces occupied throughout “Zero Player Game” is astonishing to say the least; sounds vary from thickly wet, pulsing pillars of square wave madness, short, quick, bubbly flesh being torn from bone accentuated by a cavernous thud, longstanding ambient background drones which create the architecture for Carey’s joystick of chaos to oscillate between endless synth and sample parameters in mere seconds. Whatever the compositional idea throughout, Carey has clearly mastered it. Carey’s sounds are deep, alive, and present, and despite their customized instrument/presentation being grounded in the  digital realm, sounds so life-like and present one can feel a slithery long arm reaching out of the speaker and  gently stroking your spine with a poisoned feather tip is the overall vibe of the sound. VISCERAL and R E A L, containing all what so many lack, ‘Zero Player Game” pulls no punches that operate outside of it’s own chaotic, but idiosyncratic structure and form and is in solid control of its own sonic destiny.

“Zero Player Game” is comprised mostly of intense, sharp and dangerous, cut-up music with an organic, live and honest feel, something not easily achieved. The press release states,  “Jeff Carey’s fourth CD release is is electro-instrumental music performed with custom software controlled by a joystick and gamer keypad. Zero Player Game is an intensely artificial sound world where beats and bass lines are replaced with an elastic structure of synthetic texture, feedback and bit crushed noise blasts” which offers a deeper explanation into how exactly this  style was developed and we wonder for this release specifically? However “Zero Player Game” was created compositionally, it at no point leaves the listener in a static, boring place, for every sonic action is a new adventurous wormhole for the ear to slither down into as the brain begins to break attempting to decipher these cosmically deep and  adventurous soundscapes.  Highly recommended for fans of noise, harsh noise, and electro-acoustic cut-up. Angrily blistering yet peacefully blissful music for the curious ear. Jeff is also on tour  supporting this release so check the dates and his website below!

NOVEMBER 6, Bushwick, NY @ H010 Gallery

7, Providence, RI @ Machines with Magnets

8, Ithaca, NY @ The Chanticleer

9, Columbus, OH @ Fuse Factory

10, Louisville, KY @ Kaiju

11, St Louis, MO @ The Juice

12, Dayton, OH @ Skeleton Dust Records

13, Chicago, IL @ TriTriangle

15, Pittsburgh, PA @ 3577 Studios

16, Nyack, NY @ Nyack Village Theatre Boutique

17, Philadelphia, PA @ Vox Populi

DECEMBER 2, DC @ Rhizome

3, Johnson City, TN @ The Hideaway

4, Gainesville, FL @ The Limin Room

5, Miami, FL @ Churchills

6, Orlando, FL @ Wills Pub

7, St Petersburg, FL @ Paper Crane

8, New Orleans, LA @ Mudlark

9, Birmingham, AL @ Firehouse

10, Asheville, NC @ Static Age