by Dry Eyes
When presented with a noise project like Dried Foxglove, a question could be raised in one’s mind: why should I listen to it? Sure, its not on the surface a difficult thing to do. Its easily available from a wide variety of sources, which allow one to either stream or download it. Of course, there is the aesthetic consideration: Dried Foxglove is harsh noise, which does not allow for listening as easy as, say, a Black Eyed Peas song. There is beauty to it, but its subtle beauty, woven in a harsh aesthetic.
This harsh aesthetic is a little bit different than the full on noise blasts one may encounter in power electronics or other harsh noise acts, as the noise was actually composed in a tracker program called Renoise. Rather than being improvised from a set of noise making electronics, the sounds are thought out and inputted into a sampler and sequencer, with effects applied as needed. This gives the noise a unique character, as the two composers have a seemingly limitless palette of sounds to choose from and manipulate, and all the time in the world to do so.
Being composed by two people allows two scrambled brains to provide creativity to fuel the project. When made, the project files were worked on by one of the creators, and when he decided he was done with an editing session, he sent it to the other creator, and so on back and forth. This definitely adds something to the noise.
An interesting fact about Dried Foxglove is that it is the work of, as diigitae put it, “two schizofriends”. Both of the creators are schizophrenic, and the chaos in their mind is reflected in the music. Dried Foxglove is by two insane people, if you want to look at it that way, but it is an interesting look into how they decided to be creative. Not all noise music is made by mentally ill people, although some is, and given the preference for chaos by listeners of this type of music, this is simply one more reason to listen to Dried Foxglove.
The debut album by Dried Foxglove, Psychiatric Surgery, is dedicated to all of the victims of the crass stupidity displayed by humanity in trying to treat mental illness throughout the ages. Most mentally ill people would prefer to just have effective medication and perhaps therapy, but in times past people did things such as drilling holes in the head to let out demons, or to find a “stone of madness” in the brain. With the advent of New Age superstition and magical thinking, one wonders what idiocy humanity will dream up next in treating the mentally ill, and the tracks on this album are a warning to all of what happens when ignorance and fear are the deciding factors in treating illness.
The follow-up EP is called ACAB or “All Cops Are Bastards” and is dedicated to some of diigitae and Dry Eyes’s least favorite people: the police. As anyone who suffers from schizophrenia knows, getting carted off by the police for no good reason is a hazard, and this EP is a “fuck you” to these servants of the powers-that-be. Although this is the case, most of the tracks on this EP are more subtle than the title, exploring the insidious nature of power and domination in more subtle ways.
So in answer to the question “Why Should I Listen to Dried Foxglove”, I hope have provided an answer for you in this short piece and have piqued your interest. Dried Foxglove is available on most major streaming and download services, Bandcamp, as well as professionally manufactured CD (with artwork by diigitae). I hope you are inspired to listen.