Voice Crack – Kick That Habit
April 28th, 2009
Voice Crack was a Swiss noise duo consisting of musicians Andy Guhl and Norbert Möslang. They formed in 1972 as a free jazz outfit, but abandoned that format in the early ’80s to experiment with what they called “cracked everyday electronics,” which consisted of small, cracked open appliances rigged up with amps. This set-up produced sounds that could turn on a dime from a sparse clatter to an all-out noise tsunami. Although Kick That Habit hails from the 1980s, it looks like it could have been filmed decades earlier in some grey Eastern bloc country, what with its blurry, bleak backdrops and stark, grainy atmosphere.
The movie, which contains no talking or singing, jumps back and forth between snowy outdoor scenes in the Alps, indoor live performances, random objects like electric fans and dripping faucets, and people trudging around out in public. We join the members of Voice Crack during a game of putt-putt golf. The clanking of the golf balls against the resonant metal contraptions on the course is striking. Then comes an abrupt cut to a roomful of their cracked everyday electronics–complete with the vivid image of transistor radios squealing on twirling turntables–that form an impenetrable sonic stew.
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Posted by Arcane Candy