My record collection
[259] Bhob Rainey - Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet

Bhob Rainey has toured and recorded with Damon & Naomi over a number of years, this is a single released by Evolving Ear Records in 2006 and contains two five minute sound experiments and, because of that, is not something I play all that often!

Bhob Rainey - Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet

I often scour/search for any mentions of Galaxie 500 and it’s former members and in 2006 it landed me on this blog post which quoted the Evolving Ear press release which contained this section:

Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet is his first release of purely electronic music, and Evolving Ear is tickled to be the messenger on this one. The material on the two side-long, 33rpm pieces ranges from homemade synth textures to field recordings from Lisbon, Venice, Huelva, and other, unremembered locations. There's some singing by Naomi Yang (Damon and Naomi) and Bhob himself, and some words of wisdom from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Overall, a woozy alternate reality is offered for repeated dream pool swims. Beautiful, hallucinatory artwork by Elaine Kaufmann. Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet Bhob Rainey EE17 - 7" vinyl

Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet - Evolving Ear (my emphasis, obviously)

Although… the singing, if it is singing, is buried in amongst all the other noise going on. It is also uncredited - and so, if I hadn’t come across that blog post it almost certainly wouldn’t be in my collection because… I wouldn’t have known!

The two sides of this release, "A Desert of Consolation" and "The Summering Unsound", both follow a singular form: an ambiguously intensifying exposition followed by an unfolding of previously hidden elements. The materials, however, could not be more different: "A Desert of Consolation" consists almost entirely of synthetic sounds lying in a narrow frequency band, while "The Summering Unsound" is made up of a good deal of untreated field recordings, beats, and broadband noise. And, though I followed my dictum of simplicity in the pieces' trajectories, I couldn't stop myself from piling a lot of layers into the mix. So, there's a simple, if perverse, horizontal unfolding, and a morass of detail vertically. Kinda like a nice pile of fall leaves with a rake and skeleton hidden inside.

Bhob Rainey - Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet (Bandcamp)

The other Bhob Rainey purchase I have is from/about another of his projects The BSC which is three 20+ minute improvisations, and a 100+ page book (mine in PDF form) that analyses and comments on it - the first piece is called With Pauline Oliveros and was recorded (I suppose unsurprisingly) with the late, pioneering, experimental composer/musician Pauline Oliveros at EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) in 2009. Damon contributed what Bhob described as a “series of prose poems” to the book.

• Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/081
• Artist: Bhob Rainey
• Title: Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet
• Packaging: Wrap around sleeve in PVC envelope
• Format: 7”
• Bought from Evolving Ear Records for $11 (incl postage)
• Buy ‘Two Bites of a Bitter Sweet’ on Bandcamp