7hz

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
7hz, founded in 1995 by Scott Arford, has continued to function as San Francisco's premiere venue for noise and experimental media. A space where new combinations of image, sound, and experience can be realized. Since its inception it has had the privilege of hosting performances for many of the world's most interesting, progressive, and challenging sound and media artists. This CD represents some of the best recordings by each of the 3 people that live at 7hz and make it the wonderful place that it is. Randy has appeared on Ground Fault (GF009 - RHY Yau "The Hidden Tongue"). Scott is also no stranger to Ground Fault (GF003 - Radiosonde "Meter Sickness"). Michael Nine is better known for his work under the name Death Squad. This is the fourth collaborative CD between Randy Yaus Aucultare Reseach label and Ground Fault Recordings.

Album Description
Operating in the legendary Cyclone warehouse space near Hunter's Point in San Francisco, 7hz has functioned as one of the few SF venues that is exclusively dedicated to experimental sound art, and also has served as the live / work spaces (in the truest sense of the term) for Scott Arford (aka Radiosonde), Randy Yau (23five), and Michael Nine (aka Death Squad). During the fall of 2002, 7hz took their show on the road, as Arford, Yau, and Nine embarked on a European tour. This disc is essentially the tour support album, offering an exclusive sampling of each artist's work. Arford's sonic reconstitutions of video static have made for stunning audio / visual performances (almost unheard of in the visually sterile realm of laptop composition). Here, his contributions spit forth digitally corrosive bits of static and noise (which resemble remote control / shortwave detritus) along mechanized grids. Altogether, Arford's tracks resemble the pained electric noise of those collaborations between Zbigniew Karkowski and Pita Rehberg. Yau defines his work as an "action concrete," in which recordings of impromptu vocal outbursts have been dissected and reanimated through a number of electro-acoustic techniques, often sounding like a mutation of Robert Ashley's classic "Automatic Writing" with far more jarring and confrontational results. Michael Nine's work comes out of the Whitehouse / Con-Dom approach of primitive noise assaults as transgressive theater. All in all, an excellent introduction to these San Francisco artists. --- Aquarius Records

Don't Dance Rattlesnake
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Don't Dance Rattlesnake
The Films
Manufacturer: 7hz Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Release Date: 2007-02-12

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Fantastic.

7hz

Manufacturer: Auscultare Research/Ground Fault Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000899LK
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Zero Poin
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Album Description

Operating in the legendary Cyclone warehouse space near Hunter's Point in San Francisco, 7hz has functioned as one of the few SF venues that is exclusively dedicated to experimental sound art, and also has served as the live / work spaces (in the truest sense of the term) for Scott Arford (aka Radiosonde), Randy Yau (23five), and Michael Nine (aka Death Squad). During the fall of 2002, 7hz took their show on the road, as Arford, Yau, and Nine embarked on a European tour. This disc is essentially the tour support album, offering an exclusive sampling of each artist's work. Arford's sonic reconstitutions of video static have made for stunning audio / visual performances (almost unheard of in the visually sterile realm of laptop composition). Here, his contributions spit forth digitally corrosive bits of static and noise (which resemble remote control / shortwave detritus) along mechanized grids. Altogether, Arford's tracks resemble the pained electric noise of those collaborations between Zbigniew Karkowski and Pita Rehberg. Yau defines his work as an "action concrete," in which recordings of impromptu vocal outbursts have been dissected and reanimated through a number of electro-acoustic techniques, often sounding like a mutation of Robert Ashley's classic "Automatic Writing" with far more jarring and confrontational results. Michael Nine's work comes out of the Whitehouse / Con-Dom approach of primitive noise assaults as transgressive theater. All in all, an excellent introduction to these San Francisco artists. --- Aquarius Records

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic........2004-03-02

Scott Arford/Randy H.Y. Yau/Michael Nine, 7Hz (Ground Fault/Auscultare Research, 2002)

The performance space that was 7Hz, one of the most celebrated underground clubs in American history, went the way of the great auk a couple of years ago. While Arford and co. have moved to a different space, the death of 7Hz left a void in the noise community that may never again be filled. As a last hurrah, Arford (proprietor of 7Hz), Randy Yau (head of Auscultare Research) and Michael Nine (head of Spastik Kommunications) collaborated on this disc, recorded at 7Hz and co-released by Auscultare Research and the wonderful Ground Fault label.

That something is on Ground Fault alone should tell you the album's going to be above average. That Scott Arford recorded music for it should tell you the same. And to be short, 7Hz lives up too all the expectations.

The disc starts off with two pieces from Arford. Why they weren't recorded under the Radiosonde name I don't know, as they're quite obviously Radiosonde material. The first, "Zero Point," is a thirteen-minute reminiscence that sounds most like the material released between Radiosonde's two full-length discs (the stuff on Prosthetics, for example). The second piece, "Screen Test," is more in the vein of the work on Radiosonde's second disc, the Ground Fault release Meter Sickness. Both are pure Radiosonde goodness, clicky and staticky and swirling beat-laden madness meshing seamlessly into drone.

Randy Yau's three contributions are next. The best way to describe Yau's work is "The Hafler Trio without the arty pretentiousness." Lots of obviously human vocals and very minimal drone. The difference is that every once in a while Yau suddenly explodes into nasty powerelectronic brutality, making any piece of his work a wonderfully unpredictable experience. These three bits are no different, and the loud section of "Comlaedere" may be the most brutal thing he's released yet.

Then comes Michael Nine's stuff. Like Arford, the name change doesn't necessarily mean that Michael nine stuff is going to sound markedly different than Death Squad material. The two tracks here sound almost like a back-to-the-roots Death Squad (mid-nineties era) influenced by Radiosonde; static drone with an almost organic beat to it, but instead of using a drum machine or a bass for the beat, it's composed of more static on different frequencies. Far more introspective than the last Death Squad recordings, and in some ways more ominous. It put me in mind of a quieter Electro-Chamber more than anything.

Whether this disc is an accurate reflection of what 7Hz was, I can't say. I don't think anyone can. What I can say is that it's a damned good CD. ****

Maybe Tomorrow
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Maybe Tomorrow
Goldenhorse
Manufacturer: 7hz
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000L213MG
Release Date: 2007-01-22