CANNIBALPLANET

BTV, VT

Billboard

CANNIBALPLANET spins Drumphetamine Trap Rush
by Frank Panache for candyhammer hi-fi.

andre.W has been programming experimental IDM under the name
CANNIBALPLANET since 2001.

After artists like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher exposed him to the
realm of "impossible drums and choppy-layered ambiences" (sic) in the
late 90's, he pursued the Intelligent Dance and Drum and Bass styles
for listening, ultimately unturning little of interminable interest.

Upon receipt of the HEVVN's GATE software-- a gift from his then-
girlfriend (and named pseudonymously here for keeping secret the
nature of the original samples as well as the methods for manipulating
them), andre began work bending and "millisecting" samples at all
hours for the purpose of narrating "tech-psychic dreams of birth,
sex, and destruction, with subtexts spanning all experiences
unnamable and true at a rate beyond casual comprehension."

andre.W prefers to leave aggression and affection "up to
interpretation," holding that "modes of emphatic sound serve as a
vessel for the listener's mobile, variable poise."

Prompted by similar motives, mr.W (sic) has also largely shied from
explanation and exposition, having maintained that CANNIBALPLANET's
only online profile-- 2 years running and the only authorized block
of such text in existence until now-- begin not with an explanation
of upbringing, interests, or influences, but instead with an
un-labeled list of ideal CANNIBALPLANET listeners, such as
"coquettes," "gun-swallowers," and "tortured cute things."

The profile continues with an all-caps string of more than 100 curt,
supposed alternate monikers for the artist-- all of which are
featured in the layout for CANNIBALPLANET's debut CD "CRANKBLOOMING,"
with examples including "Splintered Steeples," "Ear-splitting Sun,"
and "And When They Stab Each Other In Space, The Blood Is Blue All Over Them."

The debut EP "CRANKBLOOMING" consists largely of experimental IDM,
particularly with erratic percussion. If it's evocative of anything,
it's something that changes quickly, and in shifty layers-- like an
"android infirmary assembly line on speedballs-- it's replete with
vast-ish echo-surges and intricate 100 mph meltdowns."

The only way to truly explain or epitomize CANNIBALPLANET tracks is,
of course, by listening to them, but when asked to commit the music
to tangible definition, its creator relies again on more elaborate,
indulgent terms:

"CANNIBALPLANET is astro-snappy deth (sic) by drumgasm.

"CANNIBALPLANET is meant to repeatedly sect your brain into quotients
4 digits past the decimal and shift them all at the speed of cracking
glass.

"CANNIBALPLANET puts plus signs between every sequential number and
lists them backwards and sideways, alternately, by the beat: it's transcendental
argyle."

andre.W again points out that while the music may convey a staggering
amount of morphing imagery, it's also "crafted as a mute companion--
a soundtrack for the listener's moments in the margins."

He concludes:

"The last time someone asked me to describe this music, I mentioned
that I like to send it off to end up as a soundtrack to a person's
life-- to driving, cooking, crying, making love, and hiding out; I
said that I hope it's a cure for pain. I would now revise by
saying that I'd instead like to know of it as part of whatever they
themselves hope for-- pain included."

--Franc Panache,
04/08/08

NOTES:
*To date, the name CANNIBALPLANET and the majority of the titles in the artist's catalog
deliberately and consistently follow the syntax 'All-caps, no spaces.'

*All text in quotation marks within this article are direct quotes from andre.W.