Like many power electronics and PE adventures, Bellerue and Silberman's “Amplified Piano Duets” offers a cluster of gonzo feedback growls, creaks, shocks, stings, and pugilistic microtonal knockouts, as well as employing silence or near-silence to their advantage. The one-sided LP is rich with sustained moments of well-constructed white light drones and thrum, expertly cut and arranged between controlled sizzle, ambient room sounds and cascading crackles, concocting a highly listenable “noise” record. In fact, the loose use of the term “power electronics” may be a misnomer, but I use it here not arbitrarily, but as a generalized critical genre for introductory purposes. So to make myself clear, when you buy this sweet little album, don't expect anything along the lines of Whitehouse or The New Blockaders.

On “Amplified Piano Duets,” I never get the feeling that these two are merely lobbing lawn darts into melody, but rather focus on the relationships of sounds both similar and dissimilar. I wish there were liner notes detailing their process, but alas there aren't. I'm at a loss as to exactly how these two gentlemen arrive from piano to the pleasant cacophony they create. Voice Crack comes to mind as a good touchstone of influences, but I only make that comparison due to the end product (not the process). Bellerue and Silberman have a knack for impromptu composition, a trait which positively highlights the sounds they produce, and though I'm almost certain these are improvisations (one can never be too sure, the record has a concrete compositional feel, with sounds merging and colliding in such a way as to keep the primarily atavistic, atonal barrage moving while simultaneously cleaving tonal relationships asunder. Hats off to the musicians for understanding how restraint makes possible the curious fluidity of the recording. Very nice job. 9/10 -- P. Somniferum (2 December, 2009)