Reviews Zarek 08
IVOVAE – QUATERVOIS
Apperentely the Iovae disc is a re-issue of a limited edition CDR on Drone Disco (not to be confused with Drone Records), recorded in 2001. Iovae is one Ron Orovitz from Cincinnati and has been playing around since 1988. First with turntables, later on tone generators aswell as ‘procussion’ instruments, being fire-works. He records, as the title implies on a four track machine, adding a harsh, lo-fi sound to it. The five rather short pieces on this CD are indeed quite raw but captivating. The sound is quite ‘thick’ and dense, but also carry a sort of industrial music feel to it, but one that sounds much more interesting than the usual industrial garbage. Raw but in all it’s shortness an effective release.
Frans De Waard – Vital Weekly
If Pike has its nasty spots, Quatervois is unremittingly raw and heavy going – and none the worse for it either. Iovae (aka Cincinatti-based Ron Orovitz) also deserves an outing on Erik Hoffman’s Ground Fault imprint as one of the USA’s more adventurous noisicians. These five tracks, whose titles, like Toshiya Tsunoda’s, basically tell you all you need to know (“plastic water cooler and drum kit”, “air-rifle and wine bottles”, “three tone-generator oscillators channelled through reverb boxes”, “solar radio emissions with telemetry / morse code” and – my favourite – “machine gun assortment courtesy of Knob Creek Range, Fort Knox, Kentucky”). The music ranges from the abstract (“Linn Drum machine with oscillators”) to the viscerally damaging (“air-rifle and wine bottles” is great if you’re feeling pissed off with the world but don’t want to vent your fury on your prized possessions), and the great thing is that the whole album clocks in at well under half an hour, meaning you can listen to it twice as often.
Dan Warburton – Paristransatlantic