Like an eviscerated live performance with its innards trailing in the dust, A Compressed History of Everything Ever Recorded Vol 2 captures the sounds of applause post-performance, and extends them into a veritable orgy of hand to hand combat. Or so it seems after 50 minutes of non-stop clapping, cheering, whooping, and at some stages crys of either pain or ecstacy, it’s hard to tell. Far from the typical ‘clap your hands everybody’ shouts of a live experience, Autodigest have overlaid ovations from what could be innumerable performances, it’s hard to tell, as over the fifty minutes of clapping the energy never lets up – it’s like one big encore. Though it’s pretty much a one-trick pony; the joke of the endless applause can wear thin pretty quickly – but like an incessant car alarm, as one’s ears become attenuated to the relentless barrage, new textures, structures and timbres appear, and the excitement that a hyped crowd elicits ebbs and flows. It’s a strange but satisfyingly quirky release, that ultimately poses quite serious questions regarding the nature of crowds, the human condition, the infectious nature of applause, and even the very notion of music in what seems like an inane exercise.
DH