Jar Moff, Commercial Mouth (side A)

Jar Moff squeezes a lot of ideas into 2013's Commercial Mouth.  The album contains two side-long tracks, with the B-side being the title track and the A-side having an unpronounceable title.  Each track evolves continuously without reference back to any previous point.  New sounds are constantly introduced, and they're often different from what has come before.  Some sounds have pitch and shape, where others have more noise-oriented timbres.  While it's not clear that an analog source was used, references to analog synthesis appear alongside textures of overtly digital origin.  In addition to the digitally-constructed noises, some of the resonant timbres do not resemble a conventional analog filter.  While the pieces flow organically, there does not seem to be any overarching logic to Jar Moff's compositional strategies.  The pieces generally maintain a constant dynamic level, with brief, temporary changes as sounds enter and exit the field.  The record is heavily compressed to achieve a very loud pressing volume, which might further reduce dynamics that were originally included.  The frequency distribution skews heavily into the presence frequencies, which might also contribute to the volume of the vinyl pressing.  Bass sounds do occasionally appear, and they sometimes provide brief moments of pulse in a field that usually lacks any sense of time of rhythm.  The impressive packaging provides more structure than the musical contents.  A geometric pattern and artist / title information is screened on the plastic sleeve, to appear in front of another geometric pattern on the outside jacket.  Since each pattern is a single color, it gives a simpler and more coherent presentation than the constantly-evolving palette of Jar Moff's music.