Louis Boone: Keyboards, Tone Generator, Percussion, Nervous Drum Kit, FX
Reginald Taylor: Guitar, Mystery and Grunge Bass, FX
Carl Howard: Keyboards, Der Rhythmus, Sorrowklavier, Toy Gittar, Con-Sequencer, FX

On "Percustipation":
Louis Boone, Carl Howard & Renard Hines: Klangen, Bangen, Fluten, Viben, Human Vapor, FX

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THE LAND OF GUILT AND BLARNEY:
Mugged by Life (free DDL on Audiofile)

"This release from 1992 features 59 minutes of enticing electronic music.

The Land of Guilt and Blarney is: Louis Boone (on keyboards, tone generator, effects, percussion, and bass) and Carl Howard (aka Nomuzic) (on keyboards, rhythms, effects, and toy guitar) with Reginald Taylor (on guitar on one track).

Frolicsome electronics conspire with nimble rhythms to generate lively tuneage of an eccentric nature.

Track one comprises a crunching percussion set with trumpet-like electronics blaring away lead riffs. A grinding pulsation slithers through the mix, as the synthetic horns undergo engaging variations that evolve into church organs, then later kyoto pluckings and beyond, finally settling down into a playful keyboard routine.

After the highly rhythmic demeanor of the prior song, the next piece adopts a more abstract character. The instruments seem to noodle about, exploring various expressions that never coalesce into a melody, but follow a sense of curiosity in their journey.

The third song returns to a melodic model, with chomping tempos and twanging pulsations that delineate a tune that moves from pensive to playful as things grow progressively more whimsical.

Track four features marching rhythms in tandem with thundering basslines, while keyboards produce sprightly melodies that cavort throughout the dire morass of drum and bass.

While these tracks are all long (averaging ten minutes in length), the last piece is twice as long, allowing the tune to mature and meandering through passages of pittering percussives and dinging oscillations, bongos competing with battered dishware and rattling sticks and bonging bells. Gradually, the beats begin to slide into a sort of erratic rhythm, but not one that persists. Constantly changing, the tempos establish a lasting bang fest whose rhythmic character maintains a quirky nature. The beats persist in varying, switching from conventional drum kits to household objects to gongs to wheezy flutes to xylophones to whistles...on and on. This freeform piece eventually takes on a ritualistic quality, culminating with an unexpected sudden fade-out.

Granted, the last track caters to eclectic tastes, but the other songs are thoroughly appealing in their sinuous agility and entrancing melodic definition."

- Matt Howarth for SONIC CURIOUSITY
(www.facebook.com/matt.howarth.710)