Universal Eyes
Four Variations on ‘Artificial Society’

Event album in the psychedelic noise community of Detroit, Michigan: an unprecedented collaboration between Universal Indians and Wolf Eyes. It should be clearly stated that although this is the first LP resulting from this new partnership, the two projects have in fact crossed paths several times over the years: Johnny "Inzane" Olson, who in the early nineties founded Universal Indians with Bryan Ramirez (today replaced by Aaron Dilloway) and Gretchen Gonzales, is one of the collaborators of Nate Young's Wolf Eyes, as is Aaron Dilloway. A shared path where clearly each has influenced the other with Nate Young particularly distinguished for being an incredibly prolific and versatile artist, so much so that it's honestly almost impossible to count his various types of publications in recent years.

The joint project takes as a compromise the name Universal Eyes, the album is released on that branch of Warp known as Lower Floor Music, and once again "brand" marked Wolf Eyes, it is titled "Four Variations on ‘Artificial Society’" and was recorded last spring in a home studio on the northern outskirts of Detroit, where the four partnered with Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive). There is therefore a lot of interesting material at the base of this album which can thus be considered a sort of meeting between old friends and adventure companions and which clearly becomes an occasion for a real ritual celebration. The four "variations" are actually five tracks that sound like an insane blues: talking about avant-jazz, experimentalism, urban jungle sounds surely makes sense, but the truth is that these five long post-nuclear obsessions and apocalyptic visions are claustrophobic compositions under which underground structures can be glimpsed, as if there were a Detroit beneath the city of Detroit and where the echo of the delta blues of the African-American immigrants in the great factories of Michigan, Illinois enters a new decidedly "post" phase.

It's just a shame that nevertheless, despite the devotion to that African-American component which is at the base of everything and even of seemingly shapeless times like those of this record, avant-art expressionist and counter-culture manifestos of this type continue to be mostly of interest to whites and not shared experiences by the entire population of the United States of America and a clear sign that there is a big division that struggles to be healed. This wound continues to bleed and how much albums like these can contribute to healing it I don't know. Little. Maybe nothing. Probably popular culture can do more when and where it does not become garbage and propaganda to the useless. More Lonnie Holley than Andy Warhol then. His art has much in common with this type of expression, if only it were as popular as some flabby white ass from the New York alternative scene, it would benefit the African-American community and all of us too, because maybe we'd truly find ourselves in the presence of something new. For now, grab this album anyway, in the sign of continuity of the two founding projects and of sound experiences that go back in time more than one might think.