- Eel Burn, AKA DJ Puddle, AKA Wilted Woman, makes wonderfully weird machine music. It's been released through cassette labels like Wicked City, Primitive Languages and birdFriend—outlets largely unknown outside of niche tape-swapping circles. Wilted Woman tracks incorporate musique concrète, abstract noise and compelling rhythms that sound alien but could still make you dance. They're full of wrong sounds, something she picked up by rebelling against playing her violin properly in her youth. Wilted Woman prefers unorthodox methods of music making, and her records often evolve from jams. They're loose extensions of her often improvised live performances. Diary Of A Woman is her first vinyl release, and it features four recordings from shows, plus two newer works.
The record bursts into life with "Trudeau (Dither)," one of the new pieces. It's exuberant, like a dawn chorus of twittering analog gear. "LV," the other new track, is a spoken-word mantra, where the words "love," "hope," "compassion," "joy" and "unity" bounce around a simulated echo chamber. Wilted Woman can be playful and political at once (check out her album, Bad Seeds), and "LV" is another good example of this.
The other tracks are more dance floor-friendly. The arpeggiated "Tick" feels orderly for Wilted Women (until the end, that is). "Jaeger" is a fantastic mix of sad and angry noise, where beats get you moving while jangled synths and other oddities keep you wary. "Somehow" and "Warmer" are the record's best and weirdest tracks. They both sound like recordings that have melted in the sun. "Somehow" has a load of awkward swirling parts, including a molten melody, colliding. "Warmer" is a banging sci-fi techno track that could be an early Jeff Mills or Planetary Assault Systems production that's warped over time. This is wrong dance music done right.
TracklistA1 Trudeau (Dither)
A2 Tick
A3 Jaeger
B1 LV
B2 Somehow
B3 Warmer