SAMPLE & HOLD : richard h. kirk / loopstatic

All in the spirit of wounded galaxies spinning out of control, surveilance by unknown entities, and the ever-present control machine tapping into your thoughts, Richard H. Kirk's Burroughsian LoopStatic(amine & ring modulations) is both frightening and inviting, the kind of dystopian musical vision Kirk's earlier group, Cabaret Voltaire, coaxed into existence under the guidance of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and the dadaists. Beautifully realized, Mr. Kirk created this 1999 Touch release with an ear for dynamic contrast, and especially, finely honed moments of silence that perfectly bring the "electricity" into high relief. While Brion Gysin claims that "poets don't own words," Kirk, on the other hand, makes the utterings of preachers, politicians and assorted agents of control into deranged mantras imbued with a kind of visionary poetry cut open to expose the "truth." Like Cabaret Voltaire's later works, this is purely electronic "dance" music but with an unrelentingly dark edge where noise co-mingles with more musical beats and sounds ever negogiating the processed words of religious and militaristic zealots Mr. Kirk knows only too well.