Rob Mazurek

"Music For Shattered Light Boxes and 7 Posters"

Bottrop-Boy

www.bottrop-boy.com

Abstract Expressionism is ugly. Like Jackson Pollock´s huge adrenal canvases, Mazurek´s work is characterized by muscular intensity, an expression of manly exuberance and over dramatic subtexts. Any art movement sponsored by the CIA to travel the world as american propaganda (during the 1950´s, an historical fact...) should be a lot more suspect than it currently is. The photos of paintings on the inside liner notes of this Mazurek CD display the same sloppy intensity as the AbEx works, and connect the music with this movement in more ways than my overactive imagination. Merzbow etc. have been biting this idea for years. Although Mazurek includes some gothic, dark moments between the fury (probably in an attempt to give the installation attached to the sound some sort of theatrical mystery), there is nothing really compelling in concept or execution. Why would Bottrop-Boy, a great label, release this?

A. Bergman