Pita: Get Off
Hapna

One puts on a Pita (Peter Rehberg) disc armed with the foreknowledge that cranium-shattering moments will likely emerge somewhere along the way and, admittedly, they do when detonations and squalls erupt in “Babel.” But, with that harrowing exception, the remainder of Get Off goes down easily, making it as accessible a Pita recording as one might imagine.

Following the previous Pita recordings Get Out (2000) and 2002's Get Down (both issued on Mego), the relatively short, thirty-five minute Get Off was created over a two-year period. It's bookended by two drones, a brief overture that sets a ringing tone against ghostly whorls and an overly long coda whose glistening, almost dulcimer-like sounds slowly morph into a single organ tone; an inner piece, “More break after the terror,” is similarly ambient in character. Other selections provide contrasting glimpses of Pita's style: the grinding musings, shudders, and sharp pitches of “Luzthm” seem to rouse it from sleep, while “Resog 45” includes machinic twang that resembles a Jew's harp and rippling patterns that give way to insectoid scurrying. In spite of its crude title, “Like watching shit on a shelf” impresses most. Following a quiet intro, a muffled blast signals the onset of cavernous noise (but a beautiful noise in this case) underscored by a two-note wavering base that softens the brutalizing impact of the seething shards and mangled distortions that intensify on top.

Get Off feels less substantial than Get Out, yet the latter is only three minutes longer. The difference in impressions is attributable to the latter's more dramatic dynamic contrasts; there's nothing, for example, as majestic as Get Out's third track, though “Like watching shit on a shelf” shares a similar albeit more modest grandeur. If Get Off is comparatively more subdued, it's still distinguished by moments of ambient distinction.

December 2004