LES SCULPTEURS DE VINYL

With a lineup of five turntablists, cello, sampler, and vocals and led by avant genius Otomo Yoshihide, this is not your average group. In fact, this strange blend of over-the-top plunderphonics at times sounds as dense and chaotic as some of John Oswald's work, but done live rather than through meticulous layering and overdubs. The music is not just completely incoherent noise, on the other hand, but rather quite organized in its own way, as everything from national anthems to easy listening records get put through the shredder. Those looking for typical DJ beats will be disappointed, as the only track that gets remotely close is "False Note"; otherwise, this is an extremely wild and experimental ride through landscapes of sound that are familiar and yet strangely juxtaposed. Tom Cora is barely audible on the couple tracks on which he appears, but Catherine Jauniaux humming and scatting over a carrousel version of a Sousa doggerel with sound effects thrown in, on "Washington Post March," is quite effective. On Sculpteurs de Vinyl: Memory & Money, Yoshihide and the gang have reinventive plunderphonics, turntable art, and improvisational music itself. The only problem is that the tracking is screwed up, with the first seven cuts all on one track.