Through their use of low tech means and focusing on the blending of guitar noise and electronic voice processing, Lovesliescrushing can be seen as the early 'missing link' between the likes of Slowdive and Fennesz. Their output has been consistently and beautifully crafted... works that contain an element of sonic mystery and still sound timeless. Lovesliescrushing is an important, if perhaps overlooked, point in the timeline of contemporary electronic music. - Richard Chartier. Lovesliescrushing, a seminal group formed in 1991 by Scott Cortez and Melissa Arpin-Duimstra, defies simple categorization by fusing elements of shoegaze, post-rock, ambient, classical, noise, dream pop, and experimental music. Achieving a diverse tonal palette utilizing only guitar and voice, 4 track cassette recorders and classic stomp boxes, they push the boundries of noise and melody by employing a simple formula which blends swathes of deconstructed guitarwash and glossolalic vocals into densely layered soundscapes. ABOUT CRWTH CHORUS: The original release of CHORUS itself was inspired by a challenge... to make a Lovesliescrushing album abandoning Scott Cortez' trademark guitar work and use only the voice. CHORUS was created by taking vocal tracks, deconstructing them via minimal processing, and turning them into new compositions. Cortez spliced the voice at the phoneme level using a tedious cut
paste method, creating a phonetic dust. These particles were treated to create a diverse tonal palette of looped rhythms, low bass registers, warm drones, clicks, siren whoops, birdlike whistles and then arranged to form new delicate figures. The voice becomes indecipherable glossolalia, divorced from meaning and morph into abstract lush tones that envelop the song like a droning, luminous cloud. The voice as an instrument was never truer than on CHORUS, because it is the sonic material for the music itself, exploding the songs into ghostly remnants of their origin, the human voice. The original very limited edition was released only in Peru and highly sought after. In the process of trying to obtain a copy of this recording Richard Chartier contacted Cortez directly. After long discussions of the work of Lovesliescrushing, Cortez was asked by Richard Chartier to do something special for a LINE release and came up with an idea to revisit the tracks that comprise CHORUS. the concept behind CRWTH was to abstract even further upon an abstraction. CRWTH is a completely re-edited take on the material, not merely a remix album, but an alternate version of CHORUS, a redux. The CRWTH cd contains a special coupon for a free download of CHORUS + 3 (LINE_043b), the full original 14-track CHORUS release plus 3 additional new reworks.
