[atsonicpark]

Blastitude issue # 29 will be publishing a review of the new Scissor Shock album. Here is the first, unedited rough draft of the review:

• • SCISSOR SHOCK Psychic Existentialism CDR (FOR NOISE'S SAKE) Nutty stuff from a one-man project, short tracks that sound like they each have about 1,002 edits, with the raw material being live instrumentation (the dude sounds like a pretty a...ccomplished classical/acoustic guitar player), computer clicks and clacks, maybe samples from film music, and maybe hundreds of more sources... I don't know. It reminds me of Synclavier-era Frank Zappa, Conlon Nancarrow, John Oswald's Plexure... but the thing I like about it is that for all the over-the-topness, it's still not trying to be the loudest and craziest thing in the room. There's a delicacy and patience to it that makes it an enjoyable listen, as well as an appealingly airy acoustic quality to the sonics. My only criticism is that the album is 32 minutes long, which is normally a good length but not so much when the music has this much (as Zappa would say) "statistical density" to it.
• "Psychic Existentialism" review by VITAL WEEK:
  
  "Scissor Shock is a project of Adam Cooley from Columbus, Indiana and releases music since 2003. The music on the album "Psychic Existentialist" can be described as Frank Zappa full speed forward. Thirteen songs, varying from extremely short (twenty-three seconds) to about nine minutes fill the album. The musician experiments a lot with guitar, voice, synthesizer, drummachine and more. It is a kind of free-jazz, rock with weirdo combinations and structures, humor and an excellent feeling of timing. For me this album is a great surprise! (JKH)"