Review: Giant Eyeball - For Motion Sickness and Refuse

artist: giant eyeball album: for motion sickness and refuse label: ash from sweat records released: by: eduardo moutinho Giant Eyeball… Imagine two marijuana connoisseurs coming together, while on a mad high, to make music with a bunch of random instruments/objects. That summarizes Giant Eyeball: music for the high, made by the high. Therefore, that is my quandary. I don’t get high, and I don’t plan on getting high any time soon. So as I approach For Motion Sickness and Refuse, I’m already at a disadvantage. But, I’ll give it my best shot to give a fair and honest evaluation of this cassette tape demo. Alright then, as with any Ash From Sweat Records release that I will review, the packaging must be taken into consideration. For this release, the packaging is even more intriguing than normal. To begin, the cassette and inserts are contained within a genuine airline vomit bag. Dan Phelps, one half of Giant Eyeball, actually went to Denver International Airport to collect the bags. Now that’s dedication. Anyway, the inserts for this release are quite detailed and fascinating. Imagine a couple of transparency sheets stapled together to make a booklet. Now imagine two ornate drawings depicting a giant eyeball staring at a man and wrapping itself around the earth printed on the transparencies along with a track listing and acknowledgments. Very interesting stuff indeed, and a perfect compliment to the equally interesting music. The music itself can be categorized into the broad genre known as “noise.” Giant Eyeball itself is a noise project formed by Dan Phelps of both Humble Ary and (the) kindercide and Ben (last name eludes me) of Rivers Run Dry. For Motion Sickness and Refuse is five songs with very little vocals and all meticulously crafted sounds. Each song has its own personality, and they flow into each other quite flawlessly. Even I managed to get into a faint trance while listening to this tape. It’s interesting to hear the drum machines, synthesized sounds, guitar, and other instruments (at one point, a bass was used as a microphone) used to achieve Giant Eyeball’s sound. You hear all sorts of sounds, including claps, honking horns, dishes breaking, and computerized voices. At one point, I felt that I was listening to psychedelic Middle-Eastern music. It’s all over the place. As far out as this stuff is, it seems to have direction and purpose. I’m not even going to get into the specifics of each song as I can’t even really do that as I look at this release as more of a whole than something made up of separate pieces. It’s seriously hard not to get into a trance when listening to this. Everyone who lends their ear to Giant Eyeball will walk away with their own opinion. In the end, I honestly can’t say that I will go back to this release. I may if I want to show somebody some really unusual stuff, but in the end, this is definitely not my cup of tea. If I was giving a score based on uniqueness and originality alone, For Motion Sickness and Refuse would score highly. But the rating issued involves many other factors as well. It’s not a case of me not liking the music; it’s just that I need to listen to something a little more structured. It’s really hard to explain, just like Giant Eyeball’s music. favorite song: "tongue on the floor next to her underwear" rating: 70%/100%