Larry Crywater: Maurice’s Hotel Death and Bounce Recursion Mixes Ltd.

In Nottingham there’s an impressive local noise scene centered around the Rammel Club organisation, amongst them there are some great local artists like Nacht und Nebel, Modulator ESP, and Maurice’s Hotel Death. Spoils and Relics were based here, but sadly, we lost them to the lure of London.

I was impressed by Maurice’s Hotel Death’s debut; the ever shifting Meeting People EP. It showed an impressive scope moving through electronica and Wall Noise amongst many different styles.

There have been two live outings in Nottingham for Maurice’s Hotel Death: Cycle Gamma is an extended version of the track that was used for the live performance in July 2013. It is released on a clear hand-written Chrome cassette. This is the second Maurice’s Hotel Death release so far on her own Larry Crywater label.

Cycle Gamma shifts into action as morphed keyboard lines are interrupted with noise. It is held together by slight noises that move through this. There are rapid shifts in the choice of methods used. It can be possible to put too many elements into a recording, but cohesion is well maintained here. There is a leap into a bigger sound as the first side progresses, at first noises are thrown together and linked up. Things then fall back into combinations of noise, broken beats and vocal samples that rebuild to make a big black mood of a recording. As things progress there are shifts across genres from wall noise, dark ambient, noise and others; this also manages to stay together. The second side plays with lower frequencies and small happenings of noise work from one to another. It uses waves of wall distorted noise and aggressive loops to periodically increase in mass of sound. Massive beats serve to bomb the looped violence that gradually erupts, things fall into spacious galaxies and oceans of distortion.

This improvised live track serves as a massive extension of Meeting People’s results, broken beats serve as still time for little shoals of noise to work within, and bigger sounds push things to other levels amongst genres that are freely mixed together. This is a patchwork of different sound that forms an impressive, abstract, overall collage of sound, at first appearing deceptively messy when in fact it is held together by a network of intricate and complexed detail. 4¾/5

The same artist also is behind the Larry Crywater Bounce Recursion Mixes Ltd. cassette.

The Original Bounce Recursion is a combination of different beats that are overlaid to create a series of complex rhythms, there is the addition of a dance music style piano added nods towards older times. Crywater mixes beats through house music, techno and electro, the original Bounce Recursion is catchy and is followed by a series of remixes by different artists. The artists who remixed Bounce Recursion were given the complete freedom to do as they wished. It is easy to recognise the different elements that re-appear across the range of mixes as the original version remains stuck in your head.

The first remixes are by Best Available Technology. Rework Part 1 pulls the Bounce Recursion into a fractured ambient territory, with the original recording broken down and presented beyond any recognition. Beats and rhythm gradually re-enter the mix with fractured noises woven in as Rework Part 1 progresses into Rework Part 2. The Best Available Technology remixes are the most radical in regards to how they abstract the original track.

The Charles Swain Melverton mix completely shuffles the beats around whilst including the original piano. KosmobOt Dub again re-tracks the rhythm yet electrifies the piano and boosts the bass to higher levels. The final two mixes are by Larry Crywater, the Recurring Mix stays true to the original with some slight sound additions. The Polytechnic 87 takes the Bounce Recursion somewhere else completely.

There is a kind of bleakness to many of the mixes; it seems like cold electronic music, this isn’t a bad thing, as I can see how it ties into Maurice’s Hotel Death, which in comparison can juggle styles and smaller details into larger passages of sound. This also shows the complex influences that go into Maurice’s Hotel Death as beats cross into both projects. 3/5

Maurice’s Hotel Death: Cycle Gamma

Cassette, 2013, Larry Crywater.

1. A – 19:58
2. B – 19:58

Larry Crywater: Bounce Recursion Mixes Ltd.

Cassette, 2013, Larry Crywater.

1. Larry Crywater Bounce Recursion
2. Best Available Technology Rework Pt1
3. Best Available Technology Rework Pt2
4. Charles Swain Melverton Mix
5. KosmobOt Dub
6. Larry Crywater Recurring Mix
7. Larry Crywater City Polytechnic 87