borbetomagus: s/t

1990 reissue of the trio's self-titled third LP. "There's something very exhilarating about music that revels in its own sheer noisiness. Borbetomagus sustain their caterwaul of sound with admirable stamina. The trio's interplay, as Jim Sauter has explained, is aimed at a total group sound in which individual parts merge into the whole. They get it. The bent notes, thick textures and quasi-feedback squeals of the saxophonists blend with Donald Miller's industrial strength electric guitar. Miller apparently gets his rough and grainy sound by severely overloading his amplifier and using controlled feedeback. The result is distortion so radical it makes individual notes all but impossible to pick out. You can trace some of these sounds back to conventional guitar techniques, but to list them would miss the point." --Kevin Whitehead