Robert Poss was one of the founders and mainstays of
Band of Susans, a club rock band from New York City. He has released two "companion" CDs on Trace Elements:
Distortion Is Truth and
Crossing Casco Bay.
Distortion Is Truth is the first of the discs, and it is some left-field music. Pulling on a veritable cavalcade of references and influences,
Poss has created one of the ultimate electronic avant-garde assemblages. With electric and bass guitars as the primary sound sources, he has added all sorts of sounds and processes -- including distortion -- to construct several individual soundscapes. (He has a shrill punk rock voice and he uses it to augment some of the constructs. It is not an unpleasant voice, but it does not fit this style.)
Poss is at his best when he is actively chopping up his sounds and mixing them into unrecognizable, well, distortion. Is it, indeed, truth? That is answerable only by the individual listener. It is a very unique offering with some minor flaws, but they do not detract from the overall excellence. This disc will appeal to fans of
Lou Reed,
Terry Riley,
Steve Reich,
Pauline Oliveros, and Robert Scott Thompson.