Don't be fooled by the crayon-enhanced album art; Time Travel is Possible looks (and occasionally sounds) a bit slapdash and amateurish, but Andrew Octopus isn't another low-grade weirdo with a four-track and a surplus of free time. Well, okay, he might be a weirdo -- the small amount of information I can find about him suggests that's he's a reclusive, hill-dwelling renaissance man with a healthy disdain for copyrights -- but he isn't the bargain-basement type. If he was, his album wouldn't sound like the by-product of a night spent eating questionable sushi and reading back-issues of Wired.
This is bedroom electronica at its most compelling -- primitive, seemingly improvised melodies, rambling, unintelligible spoken-word segments, borrowed rhythms and the like. Most of the material barely sounds deliberate enough to be intentional, so fragmented are its patterns. If you listen carefully, though, you'll find ample evidence of intelligent design: "The Insomniac Locksmith"'s darkly Amon Tobin-esque proto-grooves, "Stroboscopic Robitussin Hoedown"'s nod to Aphex Twin, even "Revenge of the Preschool Computer Hackers"'s cut-price take on the Tackhead formula. "Sudanese Hackers" (note the obsession with hackers) even musters semi-respectable indie rap.

I hesitate to lump Andrew Octopus in with the IDM crowd, although that genre's fans will be the first to warm to his work; there's a special sort of personality evident here that suggests a far greater degree of eccentricity than the field typically embraces. If you ask me, simply knowing that there are guys like Andrew Octopus out there -- perhaps slaving away on gas generator-powered four-track decks stashed in dirt-walled studios, creating songs like "Schizophrenic Soap" -- is a marvelous comfort. I'll sleep better at night knowing that he's putting the chaos back in electronic music.

-- George Zahora

Andrew Octopus - TIME TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE: Well, uh, only for those of us who have "been there" already, I s'pose. Lotsa' drum machine beats, drones radio noise & plenty of tasty spoken-word tendrils to ponder. Definitely a "do-it-yourself" project, in the strongest sense... & that's not a "dig", it's coming from a player/writer who started with Casio & Yamaha el cheapo keyboards to "get th' message out". Yeah, sure, .MP3 freeks will hit ht' panic button, 'coz this isn't exactly "hit" material... but, then, who asked for "clean" music, anyway? Great fun & with a bit o' "pun" tossed in fer' good measure. I certainly got a kick out of it over th' last 2 weeks, kept changing back to this one in my hep lil' Honda Civic. As I said, you'll have to understand that in order to hear new sounds, you've got to have a bit o' danger in yer' ears... but, you'll be rewarded (as was I) with a feeling that D.I.Y. is still ALIVE & WELL! Gets a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED from us, for listeners who aren't afraid to tackle the unknown!

Andrew Octopus - Time Travel is Possible

Man, I am such a dickhead. Andrew knows that. After being sent a second copy, and dragging my feet for a year, I can finally review this. Now, bear in mind, I owe people reviews from 4 years ago, I think. (Dino, Lord Vic, Magar - Sorry, guys). But, fuck it, I'm here now. And see, Andrew? This is why I don't talk to people I owe reviews to. I inevitably have to bullshit them, even if I don't intend to do so. I had the best damn intentions, but these things take time.

For example: I can't write without pot. So then I invest a lot of effort in getting a lot of pot. Then I smoke it all and write nothing. And the cycle continues. Well, I'm out of pot. There ought to be a law that requires someone to get all writers, musicians and visual artists high if they want to. To enhance American productivity.

FRANK ZAPPA. GEZA X. WEEN. WILLIAM BURROUGHS. There are few others worthy of being mentioned in an Andrew Octopus review. Now, my man sent me a tracklisting. But a fool and his tracklisting are soon parted, of course. I expect to find it soon after I finish the review.

Anyway, the first track strongly reminds me of GEZA X's xylophone punk musings. Making 'electronic' music so wildly off-kilter really isn't easy, when you consider the regimented nature of most machine-generated music.

It is in track two that you really get to meet Andrew for the first time. Or perhaps it is the second half of the first song? "The human body can be any system based on the number ten". The deadpan spoken word in this piece are true poetry. I think most people today forget music's relationship with poetry. This is most ironically apparent in today's hip-hop world...

Track three is melodic glitch-hop, and is quite soothing, to boot. There is a scary optimism within this music, countered by darker words. When Andrew talks, you realize he is no ordinary rap writer. If he ever puts this down to some hard hip-hop beats, people would trip. But, like a few other geniuses I know, Andrew is scarcely concerned with making his sound more approachable.

The overall theme is someone searching a radio dial. Searching, period. The enclave Andrew has found safe harbor in is self-created. He has made a nest in cyberspace. This theme culminates when the static and radio-dial searchings actually become the music, in a subtle transformation.

Before I get back to this review proper, I'd like to elaborate on the artists I have compared Andrew to. ZAPPA comes to mind, ideologically. Yes, ZAPPA was the original white rapper, but that's beside the point. He was also painfully aware of the dramatic atrophy of our freedoms. Not to mention the general braindead nature of the majority of the world. The differences seem to be that ZAPPA acknowledged these things, and then proceeded to mock them for 30 years. Andrew is a bit more affected by them. Or so I can surmise.

I mentioned GEZA X. That is such an obscure reference, these days. The only chance most people had to hear GEZA was on 'Let them Eat Jellybeans' compilation from Alternative Tentacles. The song was "Isotope Soap", and while good, was just a taste of what that band was capable of. The album is so rare, I haven't heard it since 1988. Geza has a studio in Cali now, and he produces a lot of major label stuff, as well as indy artists.

WEEN comes to mind for the sort of drugged-out, mindfucking rhythms they do. I have no idea as to Andrew's mindstate when he writes and records, but at times, WEEN is the closest thing I can come up with to describe the vibe.

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS happens to be a big influence on Mr. Octopus. This is most apparent in the spoken word thing he does, but also in the entire 'cut and paste' sort of approach to making music. Mr. Burroughs would have understood this tape very well. And probably destroyed it in an act of defiant anti-art, along the lines of the woman in 'The Fountainhead' who destroyed precious statues so no one else could defile them with their eyes.

But, back to the tape.

The shortwave rhythms devolve back into randomness. But it anything really random? There is a thread of continuity, of synchronicity that inhabits everything we do. Which is why 'accidents' play such a role in many great musical pieces.

Excellent. More spoken word/rap from Andrew. And singing! This song is so dope, I can't describe it. I think the biggest point this tape makes, overall, is that studios, polish, etc. are just trappings. Garnish. Truly memorable, great music just is. In fact, this tape would lose part of its appeal if it were some 48-tracked extravaganza. That would be interesting, as well, but there is something magical about essentially creating something from nothing, independant of the huge machine that seems to exist to co-opt and corrupt our ideals.

This tape is just pure, I guess I am trying to say. It works in its favor that most people wouldn't "get it". This is something for the illuminated ones to ride to. The act of reviewing this tape was a journey in itself. It required me to drive to a storage facility, socially engineer the attendant (because I haven't paid them lately), and actually steal my own tape deck back from them in order to get this review done.

Thinking about it, the actual best comparison, production-wise, is my friend Brian Magar's bands, PYROCLASTIX and GUNTGRUTCHER. Magar did such cutting edge stuff that people still haven't caught up to it. I feel the same way about Andrew's work. Both artists employ lots of analogue techniques, as well as a bastardization of electronics. Tape hiss, clicks, etc. become part of the act, rather than a distraction, which is what they would be if they appeared on some otherwise over-produced album.

The next cut is staccato, eletronic and weird. Again, MIDI xylophone-esque. Meandering, but directional, at the same time. The sort of stuff that drives some crazy, and endlessly delights others. I wish I knew how he did this, actually.

The last track is not that far off from GUNTGRUTCHER in places, actually. It's a KILLER Star War cut up that introduces another Andrew rap, and it just might be the highlight of the entire tape. There are other MCs on here, as well, and they really serve to showcase Andrew's production skills. BLeeding edge. Labels would do well to give this cat studio time just to cop some of his techniques. Amazing. This is the track for the hip-hop purists. I am in awe everytime I hear this.

Side two has a guest appearance from Mr. Burroughs himself, it sounds like, nestled in with some electronic noise. How wonderfully appropriate, on all counts. And then the tape ends without explanation, which adds to the entire aura of mystery that surrounds it. It's lo-fi, but top-notch. If people like Andrew didn't take chances, music would never evolve. I have to thank him for the tape. Not just that he sent it to me, but that he made it in the first place.