foom: surface noise & imperfections

Green marbled vinyl in limited edition, hand-glued, artisanal LP sleeves. Cut-up, lo-fi electronics. Ambient, drone, modern classical. Foom (no reference to the old Marvel Comics fan club) is a catch-all name for musical projects by Boston's Whitehaus Family peripheral member Chris Lichatz. His solo output dates back to the 1990's, and ranges from the demented blues-based Butthole Surferisms of 1994's Six of My Favorite Turds (Stomachache Records) to the abstract lo-fi electronics of 1998's self-released No Fidelity Audio CD. This new LP ends a 10+ year commercial release hiatus, and showcases his now-honed technique of layering loops from distressed thrift store and dollar-bin vinyl into hypnotic sound collages. 'Years ago I made a full album of layered skipping vinyl, and distributed it for free as a small run CD-R, but there wasn't a reliable way to perform live with the skipping records and get them to do what I wanted, plus it was unwieldy.' And so this set-up was born: one battery operated turntable, a splitter, two looping pedals, and a pile of forgotten easy listening vinyl. 'These pieces are supposed to be like dreams, and that kind of sleepy but disjointed confusing reality you feel when dreaming, where things are familiar but somehow wrong. Pleasant drones lead to angular chaos and coalesce into competing rhythms, only to degenerate, William Basinski-style, into a quiet rumble.' The hand-crafted LP sleeve is wildly divergent from his recent CD-R history, 'I'm not much on self-promotion' he admits. This long-overdue 'proper' packaging for one of Boston's slept-on lo-fi composers is definitely the presentation his music warrants.