*The Stranger, Vol 14, No.1, Sept 22, 2004
-Mad Cow B.B.Q. ; Monkey with a Gun (Symbolic Insight)
Wesley Davis (bios+a+ic) and Casey Jones (Noise Poet Nobody) create low-lit, amorphous soundscapes that make you feel as if you've ingested all the drugs sampled in Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception. Davis' processed trumpet and Jones' customized slide guitar form sonic mirages over rhythms that twitch and skitter with devious intent. These albums inspire feelings of both transcendence and dread. Y'all ready to party? DAVE SEGAL, The Stranger

*Improvjazz Nation
A group of our totally jaded neighbors (they live up in the Seattle area, we're down in Olympia) get together to turn your ears to total & unadulterated mush... if your brain survives this onslaught, you can survive anything! Players were bios+a+ic, Noise Poet Nobody, inBOIL & Otis Fodder. 66 (& then some) minutes of total madness... I'm not sure what kinda' diet they're on, but if this is what "Mad Cow" does to you, invite me to th' next roundup. Experimental in the extreme, "regular" listeners will not be able to "stomach" this, & will probably turn into vegans after the first cut, "Mustard". It's an odd marriage, as the food-related titles actually parody some kinda' "relaxation" tape experience... but, I picture your body going into spasms & fits during the listen, if you're not acquainted with madness already. This is some of the best "new" experimental I've heard in the last couple of years... there is some drone stuff, but there are excellent percussives woven around the drone, so that you (really) won't even notice the drone - until it's too late, & you're already infected. This one gets the "PICK" of this issue for "best experimental music", as well as a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for listeners who have need of aural strangenesses. Contact through the site, at www.entropicadvance.com - Rotcod Zzaj

* entropic advance (Mad Cow BBQ, cd, symbolic insight, 2004)
For their eigth release entropic advance has enlisted the aid of Carl Farrow (inBoil, *Polar) and Otis Fodder (The Bran Flakes). Aside from their individual instruments (trumpet, slide guitar, synthesizer, and theremin) all four musicians fire off countless oblique samples and effects, creating a dark and engaging form of electronic experimentalism. Fans of entropic's live show will not be disappointed, it picks up where Water for Your Eyes and Live at Seattle Art Museum left off, and sports a pretty funny packaging design as well!
mustard creeps in with eerie noises and theremin swells that morph into a slow break beat, setting the pace for the disc, as a voice says, "listen as the truth is turned into mythology, it penetrates deeply". Ketchup is a squishy soundscape of analog drones, until glitchy tribal beats slowly pour out, sounding like a deconstructed Aphex Twin track crossed with Lustmord on mushrooms with nice trumpet sounds and a horn sample which brings you back into reality briefly. The frenzy of relish is one of those pieces of music that requires multiple listens, as layers of pickled noises find a pattern about four minutes into the song. Twisted slide guitar and trumpet lead in sesame seed buns, where analog pops and hisses come together as a very catchy mid-tempo groove. Synthesizers float in around the trumpet, making it a great club track, and my personal favorite on the disc. A robotic voice issues cryptic commands throughout potato salad and the pacing gives one the sense of speeding through a tunnel, pursued by cyborgs from the future. Another beat to get your head bobbing is in deviled eggs. More repetitive then some of the other beats, it is also very glitchy and dark, sounds are set back a bit, making this another great club track. Hot dogs is similar to relish, perhaps a bit more spacious, but, still a very layered and complex mosaic of grinding noises. Grade A ground round is probably the most ambient song, though mangled data freakouts pepper the surface, the meat of this track is an evolving harmonic space. Mad Cow BBQ skirts the line between electro-glitch and ambient noise, yet manages to remain cohesive and very musical. While many will buy this CD for its wild packaging concept, they will keep listening for the depth and complexity of the sounds inside.
-j. mueller