Does this album's title constitute a program? It could, since the music found herein is atavistic, protozoic, broken down to the cellular level -- and probably not what you expect. If you are looking for an occasion to revel in Jaap Blonk's unique techniques and quirky vocal prowess, try something else. Pre-zoic Cellways came out in Kontrans' Electronic Music Series -- which means that Blonk's voice fuels effects and computer software. It serves as a source (often treated beyond recognition), not an instrument, except in short episodes, like at the end of Trapezoid Euglena. The electronics/noise plate of the balance tips much lower than the voice plate, more so than in Blonk's solo electronic venture Averschuw or in his second duo album with Maja Ratkje, Post-Human Identities. The voice factor having been cleared, Pre-zoic Cellways is a disorienting, ultimately fun album of chaotic dialogues between two men-machines. If Blonk is best known as a vocalist, Cor Fuhler is usually at (or inside) the piano. Here, though, he plays an EMS Synthi-AKS and a turntable, a setup that "seems" (since it's not always possible to know who does what) to sound like a noisier incarnation of Thomas Lehn. Bits of ballroom music surface here and there, but for the most part the turntable is used as a noisemaker. Blonk and Fuhler play harsh, difficult improvisations, but they eschew the sensory overload-type saturation common to the harsh noise community, focusing instead on dense accumulations of short, ever-changing sound events. There is also a form of humor that fans of Blonk will identify at once -- and in that regard, most of them will consider Notches of Mycoplasma to be the best track, since Blonk goes wild, Braaxtaal style. Pre-zoic Cellways was recorded in the studio in March 2004. ~ François Couture, Rovi

1		Ubiquitous Fungi Phase
2		Amoeba Threshold
3		Trapezoid Euglena
4		An Algae Generator
5		Notches of Mycoplasma

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