The release of Seven Of Wands more or less coincided with a slowdown in terms of John Wiese’s musical output, but it’s important to note: hurricanes inevitably ebb and become tropical storms at some point. The number of albums and singles that the LA-based artist released up until 2011 was ridiculous to the point of being unsustainable by a confirmed member of the human species; and recognizing the needless pressure that he was putting on himself to propagate multiple times per year, the pace was slowed and more room was given for the visual and graphic design projects that also harness his creative faculties.
Recent releases have been taking the form of more traditional albums, like Escaped Language or his collaboration with one half of Matmos. This pattern deviation should be thoroughly celebrated!
Perhaps not coincidentally, Seven Of Wands remains something of a stylistic deviation for the guy who’s frequently (and justifiably) name-dropped alongside others of international noise legend. Subjective abrasiveness is shockingly hard to come by from the perspective of this admittedly seasoned listener, but only the hardcorest of hardcore-ers would equate the album’s deliberate solemnity with weakness, qualitatively. So it’s worth a re-visit.
Accordingly, Gilgongo Records will be reissuing Seven Of Wands as a 2xLP on July 1. Supposedly Side D will have all new material, so that’s pretty sweet. For now, stream the original album below if you want a nice noisy refresher.
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