Nocturnal Emissions

For his 25th CD as Nocturnal Emissions, Nigel Ayers has created a work that balances noise and vocal samples against a wild array of loops and rhythm tracks. It's a tantalizingly spicy cocktail that sounds nothing like an out-of-control hip-hop dump truck being driven backwards through an octogenarian's barn dance.

"Collateral Salvage" is beat-oriented toe-tappin' music constructed from hundreds of different samples of indie guitar-pop, interspersed with fragments of song and surreal speech. Strong bass lines run throughout,and the rhythms are a blend of funk and exotic eastern promise. Subtle tonalities, acoustic guitar flavors, swingin' saxophones, flutes and horns are piled high over tabla and soaring vintage analogue synthesizers. Mbiras mix with driftwood marimbas, wicky-wicky guitars and pitch-shifted sitars in a swirling belly-dance dub sock-hop.

"Collateral Salvage" was inspired by the sounds of modernMorocco. Late at night, lying in a bath, listening to the output ofthree different nightclubs, each with their own blend of local music mixed with international pop hits, all in a constant struggle for dominance,with water running in and out of the ears. The resourcefulness of human endeavor in the Third World and its contrast with the luxuries and carefreewastefulness of the developed world provided the foundation for thealbum. This is the music of resistance against the constant war beingwaged by the powerful elite in rich nations against the poor. When Bushsays "you're either with us or you're against us" Ayers replies"There is no separation. Social divides are socially constructed.A forgotten branch of the avant-garde once suggested that art can directthought along new lines and enable us to generate more positive patternsof social behavior."

The title of the album is a play on words, referring to the term "collateraldamage" and, perhaps somewhat more obviously, "salvage".Collateral damage was brought into common use as a byproduct of GulfWar I. It got another boost as a result of Gulf War II. It's a politeeuphemism for what happens when the non-combatants (another euphemismfor "civilians") are unintentionally injured or killed duringthe course of an attack on a target, but it has come to symbolize muchmore, and is now used to describe other situations in which unintendedconsequences result from sloppy execution of plans. "Salvage"as it relates to recycling and recovery, has become very important totoday's society. The earth contains a limited supply of renewable andnon-renewable resources. Finding ways to reuse the components of ourtrash is paramount to our survival.

"Collateral Salvage" is the musical expression of a kindof sonic recycling that seeks to reuse previously recorded sounds, buthas unanticipated and unintended outcomes. With the best bits from allthe best songs, it's the ultimate distillation of the last fifty yearsof civilization. Nigel Ayers has been running his anti-career in NocturnalEmissions since 1979. Nobody really knows what he does for a living.He is described by his friends as "a professional freak".