Casino - Jonathan Coleclough

Coleclough is mostly known for his long drone pieces, and though Casino isn't exactly that, it is not necessarily that much of a departure, either. The release comes with both an LP and a CD, and the material on both is quite similar since both are field recordings from two locations. The first location, Las Vegas, is represented on the appropriately titled track "Casino," which takes up side one of the LP and consists of the video-arcade-like noises of casino slot machines along with some human voices and clattering of money falling. The other side of the record consists of the two-part "Tree Frogs" recorded in a very different environment of Deep Bay, Antigua, in the West Indies, where one hears the high-pitched chirping of the peepers of the title, and not too much else. The 55-minute CD track "Casino/Frog/Beach" mixes the two tracks together and adds a third field recording of waves lapping at the shore. Even here there is not too much done with the raw field recordings, though a little more than on the LP, as Coleclough lets the contrasts of the two environments speak for themselves. The CD starts out like the "Casino" side of the LP and then about ten minutes in the tree frogs come in. The casino sounds slowly fade out while the frogs take over so that by the 20-minute mark the casino is gone and soon after one begins to hear waves slapping the beach. By the time another 20 minutes have gone by, the tree frogs are in the distant background and the gentle lapping water sounds take over. These sounds also fade away to make for a smoother ending than the abrupt way in which the LP sides suddenly stop. ~ Rolf Semprebon, All Music Guide