Lasse Marhaug: It's Not The End Of The World
CD - Quasi Pop, Ukraine- 2007

Reviews:

Lasse Marhaug - It's Not the End of the World [Quasi Pop - 2007]

A Norwegian noisemaker on a Ukrainian label has to make for some interesting music, or at least that is my first impression of this Lasse Marhaug git. Well I dug up some interesting facts on Lasse and it proves that he has quite a history in the branch of noise electronics and experimental music in Norway. With over 100 albums on his back he sure proves to be a stubborn fella as well as a great collaborator with quite a stockpile of humans working with him on different occasions. At first look I found the album in itself to be quite stunning in its both simple and freaky look with a trumpeter (?!) on the run on some bleak and wooden background. Apparently Lasse is not only a noisy git but also quite a modernist when it comes to surreal and quite bizarre artwork; I just have to hand it to him for a good layout on the album. Among other things his homepage proves just what a jack-of-all-trades Lasse proves to be, so all this taken into account can he make anything decent in the way of sound?

Well, I do like this. Along the visual madness comes an album which produces and distils the very essence of noisy chaos on a primitive yet sublime way. It may not be the end of the world but after spending some time in this audible chaos it starts to feel like an emulation of such a doomsday. This album is a compilation of many different recordings done through many years on different times and spaces and on some tracks you can actually feel the travel through time itself. Noise in all its glory but is this even worth the cash spent on its cover? Well it sure feels more like a safe card then most of the noise previously encountered by this beast, however still it feels a bit lacking in its structure. It has a huge amount of soul and some of the more minimalist tracks have a sublime feeling of otherness to it that ranges way beyond the ordinary feeling of noise. Interesting as it may be this album might sound heavily like ordinary noise from time to time and that thing bears heavily against it. Lasse Marhaug is sadly an artist I have heard too little about to make a fair judgement about.

The music ranges heavily in aspects and goes from grinding gears in the belly of a beast asto the silent lull of a sub-atomic engine burning out its last power in the void of space. Noise is the essence and experimental its shape. Somehow I feel this album is a good way of experiencing experimental electro first hand, but it is a quest to actually break the border. Personally my noise tends to lean more against the northern Scandinavian scene and yet I cannot really see how this fits in with bands like Green Army Fraction, Survival Unit and Tekstomp. Well, I assume it was never meant to. This is noise as an artistic form rather than an all out rage against the masses. If you like experimental music and have a sublime passion for noise, get this album. If you don’t like noise you probably will not like this. (www.heathenharvest.com)

Lasse Marhaug - It's Not the End of the World [Quasi Pop - 2007]

It’s not the end of the world finds Lasse Marhaug slamming you with 10 relatively short, sharp and memorable noise shocks. Like an audio rollercoaster ride that twists and turns you through all kinds of noise textures and sound elements to give you one hell of an invigorating ride.
This is noise art at its top level. Instantly addictive and dense, Lasse really twists your head all over the place here. There’s are also musical elements and textures popping up here and there or sneaking their way through the rhythmic, harsh and inventive noise textures - but never lessening the impact or power. You’ll find looped electro pulse surround in buzzing insectaria wonder, as feedback hits and rips attack your ears. What sounds like amped up rain batters in neat rhythmic crispness and static crunch. Jacked-up and demented industrial beat worlds start up a foot tap dance with stuck horn elements as tuneful noise manipulation move, coming off like messed up stretched and tense reggae. Static swims and explores going against lock throbbing drone textures, before exploding into noise wonder. Another fine example of why Marhaug is one of the top three or four names in the noise genre today. Simply put: a consistent, varied and clever forty minute lesson in memorable & highly creative brutality. (roger batty, www.musiquemachine.com)

LASSE MARHAUG- it’s not the end of the world

(CD, quasi pop)

Lasse Marhaug is busy man. It is a wonder this is his first proper solo release to be reviewed in these sites. Of course, there are various cooperations (e.g. with Anla Courtis) and I remember doing an interview with him when Cracked was still a xeroxed zine, and then another when Cracked did not even exist, but never a review of a solo release. Incredible, because if you are interested in fringe music you will stumble over Marhaug sooner rather than later and by the time you stumble over this little website you already know him pretty well. Anyway, let’s be happy that Quasi Pop is offering this little compilation with music this globetrotter has recorded in various places over the last four years. Some of it released in other places on other labels, but I don’t think there is anybody out there able to keep up with this man’s release schedule. Marhaug is the only person I know of that has released tapes in the last month.

“It’s not the end of the world”, but the first tracks make you think that maybe it is close by. Harsh, disrupted and chaotic electronic noise from various sources and samples. After a while and with more tracks crashing in things get a little softer, but it is probably just your mind adapting to the barrage of noise, because for one things rarely settle down in a really easy mode and for second, the high frequency noises of “Moto to land” are even more disturbing than the harsh noise in the beginning. It sounds like gigantic robo fights from within the machinery. It is crash boom clang and it works. “Business class one” and “business class two” are the highlights of this record. Burning, torching, blistering noise approaches that pound like a fiery hailstorm in all their distorted, manipulated glory. On “Business class one” the most disrubted noise turns into a droning ambient track by sheer force and willpower. Not soothing, not at all, but somehow by magic burning your mind until it appreciates noise for what it is, just the other end of silence. “Business class two” takes the same raging noise and with a sleigh of his hand turns it into a weird, rhythmical track

How much more of this noise does the world need? It could be argued that once you have heard and experienced one, you’ll know them all. And for most electronic noise artists this could be true, but there is something lively and energetic to Marhaug’s approach and results that make them different each time. And new and also exciting. No, nobody in his right mind would play this kind of music to his new date on the first evening, not even if she is tatooed on her forehead and wears a chain between her pierced nipples and claims she wants to rub Masami Akita. Moreover, there is real variety on this record, which shows that there is still a lot to discover, to experiment and to achieve in the noise genre. This kind of eclecticism in his very own, narrow paradigm – which Marhaug flees out of a lot as well – shows the possible scope. He knows how to structure a track to show slowly evolving dynamics, as he does e.g. for “Mogel Bakover”, but otherwise on this release he prefers to get right into your face and then twist it around.

To answer the question on the beginning of last paragraph: probably enough to make it drown in noise and then a little more. Or to answer in a different way: a lot more to balance out the delicate and microscopically arranged electro minimalism that is drenching the ears of openminded listeners instead of some honest, down to earth destruction electronic noise. (www.monochrom.at)