kit clayton vs safety scissors - ping pong press
Entertainment weekly –
Entertainment weekly “listen 2 this”
What’s rocking our world
How’s this for jock jams?
-
jon caramanica
urb
– January 2003
in
which the two pranksters in question transform the ca-chick, ca-chick, ca-chick
of a ping pong ball into 36 fast volleys of collusion and collision in 18 tiny
minutes. Early on, there’s a
nerdy, Nintendo-as-processed-through-a-cuisinart affair.
Then there’s some bristling static.
Then there’s a huffing elevator ballad.
Then comes the momus-like electro-pop.
Then a few seconds of “two step” for the criminally insane.
It keeps on like that. They’re
really quite mad, these two.
-
alexis
georgopoulos
NME
–
Astonishing.
Two Americans decide their dub-informed glitchtronica is still not nerdy enough. Their solution is a brisk game of ping pong followed by a
concept EP based on the self same epic tussle. Thus 36 tracks (one for every point in the game) are spread across 18 minutes of bleeps, squonks, shifting
tones and the thwack of a rubber paddle on a plastic sphere. Which is all surprisingly enjoyable in a way you can't imagine 'Succeed at Paintball With
Autechre!' being.
-
Noel
magnet – January 2003
this three-inch cd comes encased in two more inches of clear plastic;
look straight at it for a reasonable simulation of your vision after macular
degeneration. Musically, the action
is fast and furious – 36 tracks fly past in
- bill meyer
Baltimore
city paper –
At
the very least, that's hardly the moniker that fits Safety Scissors vs. Kit
Clayton's surprisingly involving Ping Pong EP. Taking the idea of Aphex
Twin's "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball," which took its rhythmic cues from a
contact-miked rubber ball, to its logical extreme, the disc is exactly what it
says it is: 36 tracks built around a friendly game of table tennis, each segment
titled for its score. (Apparently, Clayton won 21-14.) The first track flanges
the ball's clackings until it turns into a disorienting haze, and by
"0-2" they're stretching it to sound like zooming static. Personal
fave: "10-7," which is 12 seconds long and sounds like a
jack-in-the-box played in reverse.
-
michaelangelo
matos
On
this aptly named EP, these two veterans of the San Fran IDM scene create a
high-paced volley of sounds, melodies and moods faster than you can say,
“Ritalin rock.” Quickly shifting between simple and catchy Casio-core
melodies to layered and complex DSP programming, this is schizophonic techno at
its best. With Ping Pong the duo has thrown the idea of the epic techno album
out the window and embraced an old-school ’80s megamix approach, distilling
some great musical moments into 34 tracks and 18 minutes of sonic mayhem, all
the while maintaining a playfulness and charm seldom heard in experimental
music. 8/10
-
Raf Katigbak
Almostcool.org
–
In
their first release each for the Carpark label, Safety Scissors and Kit Clayton
play a rapid-fire game of electronic lobs and volleys. This is the latest in the
line of sports-themed (first, there was Jake Mandell's Placekick EP, then
Kid 606 went gentle on his Soccergirl EP) EP releases for the label, and
it's easily the most fast and furious. It isn't your friendly dorm-lounge game
of back-n-forth, rather the two kick things to and fro like the Chinese
ping-pong team downing people at the olympics.
To
be precise, they roll through 36 tracks in just over 18 and a half minutes,
chucking out song fragments and sonic experiments like nobody's business. It's
not a complete hodge-podge, though, as at least one element from each track
carries over into each successive one, and the entire release has a jaunty,
wacktastic feel as the release starts out with the sound of a bouncing ping pong
ball, which in turn morphs into a cascade of the same sound. That morphs into a
goofy electro-pop track in which ping pong balls patter in the background before
two short tracks of distorted noise. Eventually, it all slides headon into an
odd, almost harsh electronic rumbler in which lyric-less vocals buzz over harsh
noise.
At
one point, the album sounds like it's going to slip into Parts
Water mode, as the vocals of M Patterson Curry come up in the
mix over a goofy little glitch pop gem. It only last for a minute, though, and
then the album is off again in the other direction, again busting through short
cuts of noise and even a touch (15 seconds or so) of off-kilter samba. During a
couple other points, actual tracks seem to coalesce out of the haze, but the
longest one sticks around for just over 2 minutes, and many other single tracks
clock in at under 15 seconds.
While
many of the shorter tracks sort of mix into one another (it would be downright
headache-inducing if it didn't), this is still a release cooked up for the
absentminded and short attention spanned. When it rolls past the 36th track and
back to the first, you'll probably be hard-pressed to even notice the first
time, as changes are such a large part of the turf. Like the infamous Gescom
minidisc that Autechre released awhile back (which was split into 99 seperate
tracks), this one is just as fun if listened to on random-play. It's fun, but
quite hodge-podge. Hey! It's your serve.
-
aaron coleman
Rating:
7
Absorb.org
–
rather
lively little cd - which is actually a mini cd in standard cd guise (there's
solidly moulded clear plastic around the inner single). each of the tracks is
fractured into mini/subtracks, in fact there's 36 of these scattered across that
little silver radius. 5 - really moves, plenty of high-frequency chirps before
we're into the brief 6 - which holds random guitar twangs before 7 - more ping
pong balls bouncing throws us straight into 8, no wait - 9. it's all so quick,
but this is great stuff for flicking on the random button and seeing what
ensues.
11
has brief moments of crazy singing, again with plenty of pingpong ball sounds -
though this time a meaty bassline helps cement stuff a bit. 12 fleetingly uses
casiotone rhythms before - wait - we're at 14 before i glance over to the lcd on
my hifi readout. so fast!
17
comes across all c64/chip tune for those of you who remember - a little like
bodenstaandig material on rephlex, though these guys have got far far more
aggression in their work. in fact, there's simply too many blip-tracks here to
go through individually - but ping pong is in every sense just that, the
wonderfully brief track splintering working to its absolute favour. ducking and
diving between hard-edge electronic extremetism, to cheesy/warm/funk-lined
material - these guys have certainly created something not to miss. splendidly
schizo.
-
3818919/w
Logo
magazine –
Okay,
so it¹s called the Ping Pong EP, so is it really any surprise that it opens
with what sounds like one of the National Lottery machines bursting open,
spilling its 49 balls all over the stage? And is it any surprise that a great
deal of the percussion here sounds like two ping pong balls being bounced on a
table? What may surprise is that this EP comprises 19 minutes of music and 36
tracks; it¹s a return to the heady days of Napalm Death, except with
synthesisers, sequencers and found sounds. It could be a living Hell, except it
plays like a particularly warped and vibrant episode of Pingu. That¹s not a
pun; it¹s a recommendation.
- Gillian Nash
All
music guide – nov 2002
Like
the sample source indicated in the title, this split Safety Scissors/Kit Clayton
EP spends little time in one place; indeed, Ping Pong bounces through
three dozen tracks in less than 20 minutes, caroming from heavily distorted
computer feedback to playful electronic pop and R&B with a throwback feel --
as well as a few nods to the heyday of '80s video games. Nearly everything
attempted here succeeds -- wildly, needless to say -- perhaps because the duo
never let an experiment wear out its welcome. Ping Pong is doubly
impressive for its feel, that of a tossed-off jam session; unlike the vast
majority of electronic productions, the EP never sounds labored. It's almost as
if the duo soundtracked a video game, with individual tracks functioning for
multiple cues. It's certainly not background music; these productions
practically demand close attention, but they're worth every second.
-
John Bush
Positively
yeah yeah –
Experimental
audio enthusiasts should check out Kit Clayton vs. Safety Scissors' new
dip into the Electronica pool of squeaks and squabble in Ping Pong, a
captivating album based, well, upon an actual Ping-Pong match. Sampling
Ping-Pong ball bounces and other found organic sounds, these studio mixmasters
have pushed the batch through their blip n' bleep Play Doh factory into a nifty
journey of chirping delight. Ping Pong can be found percolating on the
Carpark Records label.
-
john james
de-bug - january 2003
Hat
ungefähr 12 Millionen Jahre gedauert, bis diese EP hier
5/5
music scan - 11.22.02
Rein äußerlich gefällt mir die EP von Kit Clayton Vs. Safety Scissors, vor allem die nur halbmetallisierte CD mit dem in blau und weiß gehaltenen, schlichten Cover. Legt man die Platte ein, so stellt sich schnell eine etwas andere Atmosphäre ein. Die wohlgeordneten Farben und Formen des Artworks setzen sich nicht, oder nur bedingt, in der Musik fort, denn hier geht es schon eher unkonventioneller und sperriger zur Sache. Tanzbare, durchlaufende Beats sucht man genauso vergeblich wie den bekannten roten Faden, der doch des öfteren mal verloren geht. Quirlige, elektronische Arrangements treffen auf die analoge Grundlage und machen diese zum Großteil zunichte. Mir ist "The Ping Pong EP" etwas zu verspielt und kopflastig, als dass ich die Scheibe wirklich ganz vorne mit einordnen könnte. Interessant ist die Platte durchaus, doch momentan habe ich nicht die Motivation mich damit eingehender zu beschäftigen und dies ist bei Kit Clayton vs Safety Scissors eigentlich schon von Nöten. Für Menschen, die sonst bei Carpark- oder Hausmusikreleases zugreifen, sicherlich kein Fehler.
- matthias
trust - january 2003
Der Titel darf durchaus programmatisch verstanden werden: Kit Clayton und Safety Scissors spielen sich hier in hohem Tempo die Bälle zu, manchmal einen ganzen Haufen gleichzeitig, und bei aller nervösen Rappeligkeit bleiben die 36 Miniaturen immer leicht wie ein Federball. Hausaufgabe für heute: Schaut im Fremdwörterlexikon die Katachrese nach.
westzeit - december 2002
Gefährlicher
Schwachsinn von Clayton und Scissors. Denn auch wenn wir
6
Punkte/Tim Tetzner