Wolf Eyes Albums (7)
What The Critics Say
It was the unexpected event of the 2005 FIMAV festival: avant jazz legend Anthony Braxton joining noisy bad boys Wolf Eyes on-stage. But it did not come completely out of left field. A few months earlier at another festival, the 60-year-old saxophonist had attended a performance by the Michigan noise trio and was transformed, buying a copy of everything the band had to sell that night. The man had been hit in the face by noise music. At the 22nd FIMAV, Braxton was scheduled to play a duo concert with Fred Frith on Friday and a concert with his sextet on Sunday. The Saturday was co-curated by Thurston Moore, who had programmed a bunch of soft and harsh noise bands (No-Neck Blues Band's Nine for Victor was recorded that same day), including an afternoon double bill featuring Hair Police and Wolf Eyes. For the occasion, the latter consisted of Nathan Young, John Olson, and Hair Police's Mike Connelly -- and Braxton, as a special guest, for the whole 40-minute set. It could have been disastrous, but that would be mistaking Wolf Eyes for a band of stupid teenagers (which they aren't) and mistaking the saxophonist for an old close-minded fool (which he ain't). On "The Mangler," the trio proceeds with caution, slowly building up its noise layers, leaving ample room for Braxton to weave in his idiosyncratic lines. Both parties clearly understand what the other stands for and adapt their approaches accordingly. When Olson and Braxton engage in a sax duo, they play on the same level and, for a couple of minutes, they speak the same language. After that lengthy piece, the group has time for another "song" and Olson asks Braxton whether he would like to hear "Leopard War" or "Black Vomit." Without hesitation, the living legend answers back "Black Vomit" with a smile of pure delight and the quickness of a man in the know. That reaction summed up the whole experience for the people in attendance, so it is no surprise that the album bears that name. Braxton purists are in for a solid headache, of course, but something really clicked between these artists, and it was all in good fun. As far as Wolf Eyes' discography goes, this is also one of their best-recorded albums. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Human Animal, Wolf Eyes' first album with Hair Police's Mike Connelly (who replaced Aaron Dilloway as a touring member of the band), polarizes the band's frenzied sounds and cavernous quiet even more dramatically than Burned Mind, which interspersed bludgeoning noise with respites of near silence. This time around, eerie, wide-open spaces make Human Animal the agoraphobic yin to Burned Mind's claustrophobic yang. The album begins with a stretch of relatively restrained tracks, but a lot happens in these quieter moments. Along with ominous metallic clanking and staticky electronics, "A Million Years" introduces John Olson's maimed saxophone lines, which trickle through the rest of Human Animal. Toward the end of the track, what sounds like feedback or squealing brakes is revealed to be Nate Young's disfigured vocals. It's a trick that the band uses often (and effectively), and is also echoed in the album's disturbingly blurry portrait of...something that could just as easily be a shrouded figure or a yeti. Pieces like "Rationed Rot" -- which also appeared on Black Vomit, a collaboration with Anthony Braxton that, interestingly enough, didn't feature its namesake Burned Mind track -- maintain the uneasy quiet of the album's first half. More and more, Wolf Eyes' subtler tracks resemble field recordings, making it all the easier to immerse yourself in the atmospheres they create (this is especially true of "Leper War," which, with its wind and rain sound effects and a bass lowing like some wounded animal, is the sonic equivalent of driving down a long expanse of bad road). It's not until the title track that Wolf Eyes unleash an onslaught of their strangely addictive heavy noise and mechanical chaos, though tracks such as "Rusted Mange" -- a digital shriek-laden workout so ferocious, it's hard to believe that it lasts just over two minutes -- make up for lost time. "The Driller," Human Animal's single, is another standout, offering a slightly more palatable taste of the caustic stuff on the rest of the album: its ugly thuds, aptly piercing electronics, and retching vocals are held together by the faintest semblance of a melody. However, the unlisted cover of No Fucker's "Noise Not Music" makes it clear where Wolf Eyes' allegiance lies. While Human Animal might be a shade less cohesive than Burned Mind, it still shows that this band is very capable of finding fresh ways of embellishing on its approach. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Wolf Eyes remains one of the most prominent groups in the noise scene of the 2000s with Burned Mind, their first full-length for Sub Pop. Being on a bigger label means more opportunity for listeners to have their ears and brains reformatted by the trio's alternately suffocating and spare electronic-based works, and they make the most of it: Burned Mind upholds Wolf Eyes' reputation for making truly unnerving music. Building on the harsh, wintry blasts of Dread and, especially, Dead Hills, the album is also Wolf Eyes' most cleanly recorded work yet. That's not to say that Burned Mind isn't very, very heavy on the noise; it's just that the negative space around the band's onslaughts is carved away more clearly (which they take to an extreme by burying one of the album's eeriest pieces behind three blank tracks). Wolf Eyes' mastery of dead calm as well as brutal sounds underscore that noise music can and should be as much about texture and restraint as it is about volume. Throughout Burned Mind, the band strikes an uneasy balance between eerie, atmospheric interludes and full-fledged pieces. "Dead in a Boat" begins the album with slowly building, ice-burned tones that sound like static overshadowing distant screams, setting the stage for "Stabbed in the Face," which was released as a single earlier in 2004. Nate Young's possessed howls are even more enmeshed with the buzzsaw electronics surrounding him, and the track's relentlessly, well, stabbing bass brings Wolf Eyes' industrial and dub influences to the fore. The wonderfully named "Village Oblivia" and "Rattlesnake Shake" -- which, with its aptly rattling bursts of percussion and odd, whistling drones, achieves a terrifying almost-beauty -- are both strong pieces, but Burned Mind's most cohesive moments arrive at the end of the album. The final three tracks feel like movements of a larger piece: "Burned Mind"'s searing, high-pitched tones give way to the zombie-like pace of "Ancient Delay"'s bass pulses, which attain a tribal, hypnotic feel on "Black Vomit" before the album's final noise climax is unleashed. Burned Mind isn't just Wolf Eyes' most cohesive album yet, it's also their most accessible (well, as accessible as music this intentionally unsettling can be), which makes it equally satisfying for those just discovering the band and those already converted by Wolf Eyes' fascinatingly ugly sounds. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
On Slicer, Michigan's Wolf Eyes offer up more layers of loud, cut-and-paste artistry. The opening track offers up skipping vocal arrangements, before the vinyl hiss and variety of noises on track two take over. John Olson, Nathan Young, and Aaron Dilloway collaborate to create a slew of untitled soundscapes. The startling and irreverent tones on the third track give way to the extended noise on track four, before the 16-minute fifth track takes over with a rhythmic trance and reverberating electronic creations. The subtle overtones point to unusual restraint by the band, and the wildly-bizarre sonic experiments makes the disc a unique repeated listen. Olson and Dilloway perform trombones and horns throughout, adding unique flashes to the mostly programmed electronics and tape loops. The wind-like echo of the all-too-brief sixth track adds mystery to the madness before the screeching seventh track brings Slicer to a close. Deeply-rooted in the D.I.Y. independent spirit, Wolf Eyes yet again impress with the reinvention of their sound. It might be called atmospheric at times, if it weren't for the regular, violent interruptions to the sustained sonic contemplation. Not nearly as abrasive as most of their work, Slicer was originally released as a cassette on American Tapes Records. Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Hanson Records re-released the recordings on CD in 2002. ~ Stephen Cramer, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Despite all the Godflesh-meets-Lull type comparisons that are constantly thrown around about this group, Dread shows this Michigan trio moving deeper into their world of electronic trickery and away from even the slightest hint of standard songwriting. The key to this recording is length, as the songs sacrifice songcraft for building interesting sonic structures to support the rantings of Nathan Young. And Young is the glue holding this thing together; without his occasional yelps, the album would collapse under its own pretentiousness. But just as the songs seem to hopelessly meander into the beep-and-click abyss, the ugly and uncaring cries of Young tend to bring things back into perspective. The tracks don't always go too long. In fact, the epic "Desert of Glue/Wretched Hog" is probably the best song of the bunch. But on that track they slowly build to Young's appearance, continually layering and adding to the track until his moan appears amongst the echoing clangs. Elsewhere, the album sounds like the listener is trapped in a metal barrel that is slowly rolling down a hill, with the exact same sounds burrowing into the brain until it becomes near unbearable to keep listening. That is the point where they either turn things toward the interesting ("Half Animal, Half Insane") or continue making clamor until the song mercifully dies ("Burn Your House Down"). It's easy to respect the sort of Throbbing Gristle worship that Wolf Eyes craft, but it's not quite as easy to actually listen to the music. Brave listeners and Ann Arbor scenesters will probably have no problems getting into this, but it would be hard to recommend this to anyone outside of those two categories. Still, this is adventurous stuff that is a potent sonic weapon when used correctly. Just be warned that the whole package is not as digestible as its individual parts. ~ Bradley Torreano, All Music Guide
