Title: Fall Back
Artist: Thumbtack Smoothie
Label: CD Baby
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 634479159466
Genre: Electronic

Thumbtack Smoothie - Fall Back -bring a helmet and a microscope- Fury unleashed digits whirling amid chunks of molten synthetics and the power of sound, thunder from the depths and the heights of a code unknown .Through pulsation's of noise removed from the twelve tone system haunting melodies mirroring relentless shadow boxers emerge. For true connoisseurs of experimental electronic music. This artist doesn't easily fit into your standard electronic categories. Group members - one Albums - thumbtack smoothie - electrickitchentableland (2001) thumbtack smoothie - math is hard (2002) thumbtack smoothie - homestyle (2003) thumbtack smoothie - fall back (2006) THUMBTACK SMOOTHIE (a.k.a. Carl Coletti) made the strange transformation from studio session/live drummer (with bands like The Walkers,The Neighborhoods, Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra, the Jason Newsted-led Godswallop and Pancake Circus) to experimental electronic musician. His new album Fall Back (Quake Trap, 2006) reflects an artist reaching towards the peak of his extremely weird powers. 8 years ago, he was a drummer who stumbled upon the (then) Metallica Bass-player's portable sampler. Today he is easily one of San Francisco's boldest sonic alchemists. Naturally transferring his percussive knowledge to drum programming and sound manipulation Thumbtack Smoothie creates his densely layered tracks by loading his herd of samplers with insanely intricate sonic entities of his design and then plays the sampler pads real time improvising and responding to the overdubbed layers of sound as only a drummer of his caliber can. While tapping the sampler pads his waving hands disturb infrared light D-Beam controllers that change the parameters of the effects on his samples. This level of control shifts Thumbtack Smoothie into the territory of insane puppet master in complete command of his audio assault. This unorthodox style of track creation/performance unhinged from traditional production methods allows Thumbtack Smoothie's latest creation the album Fall Back to soar to places unexplored in the realm of experimental electronic music. Press - Thumbtack Smoothie builds new worlds with industrial minimalistic bleeps and beats. Quirky experimental soundscapes go bouncing through your brainwaves looking desperately for a performance artist to hold dear. Warm yet troubling. My picks: "Sweet Wilma On Maneuvers," "Whiplash Phantasm Beneath The Drywall," "Chipple," "Ten Minnows" and "Troublems." ( San Francisco Bay Times ) Some of you might be aware of Thumbtack Smoothie's deeply layered experimental electronic blanket's of sampled distortion and rugged beat-work on albums like 'Math is Hard' (Manic Obsessive, 2002) and 'ElectricKitchenTableLand' (Manic Obsessive, 2001). This year Thumbtack Smoothie released 'Homestyle' (Quake Trap, 2004) --also found in KUCI's RPM music library --where decomposed digital sounds interact with organically placed glitches, twitches, distorto beats and odd tweaks. It's an equation of electronics that twists and turns like mechanical insects lost in a frozen landscape in 2010. (Digital:: Nimbus experimental electronic radio KUCI 88.9 FM) Thumbtack Smoothie - Homestyle - CD - Quake Trap Quaketrap Recordings sent me these two highly experimental albums along with a compilation album to listen and immerse myself in their artist's auditory madness. The album Homestyle is the more bizarre of the two.What I found on this release may be music for individuals with a taste for oddly processed experimental electronic music that, according to the CD sleeve, was manipulated with infrared D-beam controllers. It's a 54-minute journey to a world you have never been to. A world that was uniquely created and belonging solely to the mind of the producer. Thumbtack Smoothie has given this world a tangible form in the likeness of a CD for people who desire to explore this realm but do not realize it yet. This is Thumbtack Smoothie's third release and it continues his science of melding drum & bass with eccentric sample material and fleeting appearances of I.D.M. as well as plenty of reverb, filtering, modulation and ring modulation. Notable tracks are: Never At Dusk, June Louder, Moondoggy, Sore Eye Soire, Scrunchie Misplacement Incident and Lil Dropper. ( Craig N. - Vital ) Thumbtack Smoothie - Homestyle - Quake Trap Something ruptured, something crude. San Francisco is imploding with a whole new sound. On his third full-length Thumbtack Smoothie's Homestyle has some in common with Amon Tobin, the rabid percussion is just left of center and the beats are ready to pounce at the quick. 'Clyde's Edge' certainly opens the package with an imploding whiff of absinthe. If you have ever played Pong on acid, this may be the sordid soundtrack. Something of a relentless blur. The Smoothie takes an amoeba-like sound, something edgy and organic, and struggles with it's silly putty edges, stretching it to the brink on tracks like 'Dodgeball Mentality' and 'Fragmentation Key' (which sounds like a two-parter, separated by a few tracks in between). He takes low-fi rhythms and hyphenates the backend, stunting the beats, roughing it up a bit. Where things take a synchronous turn is on 'June Louder' where added is a bit of piano, lain aside a big, bad post-rock wall of percussion. Things become much more interesting a few minutes into the track when a revving of game sounds start up a modulated drag race. Part Bi-God 20, the resemblance to early 90s industrial-goth is fragrant, but not exactly the point. ( TJ Norris - Igloo Magazine ) Math is Hard Thumbtack Smoothie (Manic Obsessive recordings) Who was it that said Collage was the art of the future? Some of the most interesting sounds that are being made today cannot be so easily be categorized. Those of you that know me know that I'm smiling right now, as I hate categorization. (If you don't know that by now, after reading this column, consider yourself forewarned.) Thumbtack Smoothie, who hails from San Francisco, does not have a problem mixing hip-hop, trance, electronic, trip-hop, drum n' bass and every other bit of noise that he can muster up, to create a sprawling, blippy psychotic trip through the ventricles that we call life. This CD explodes in your face. There is nothing neutral or relaxing here. It is what it is and there are no apologies for it. That's the beauty of this melange of sound that drips, bleeps, screams out of it's nerve endings that convulse sporadically like a nervous twitch in your arm. This is an experimental journey that takes you for a roller-coaster ride full of jolts and heaping mounds. You think you know the road ahead of you, only to end up doing a three sixty in reverse, followed by a screeching stop. This recording is meant to open the pores in your body that need a deep cleansing. Awaken your senses. Wake up people. I really dug the trip hoppy sounds of 'Sea From Grain', with buzz saws going off in the background. One of my favorite cuts is 'Still in a Cloud'. There's this sample that repeats like a floating string section and over the top, you can hear a muffled voice saying,'boring, boring, boring.' This recording is anything but boring. This is experimental music of the highest order. Available through cdbaby.com.(Midwest Ursine 'On The Turntable' May 2002 ) THUMBTACK SMOOTHIE: math is hard 'Thumbtack Smoothie's music looks at me naked and then takes my skin off and wears it - still dripping - traipsing around the kitchen singing in some alien tongue.'(Micro Vard - Club D'elf) THUMBTACK SMOOTHIE: math is hard Frenzied and frantic, the level of intensity on this CD is as abstract, yet exact as that description. For true connoisseurs of experimental electronic music. This one doesn't easily fit into your standard electronic categories. (CD Baby - editors picks May 2002) THUMBTACK SMOOTHIE: Math Is Hard (Manic Obsessive Recordings) Thumbtack Smoothie is a relatively new artist from Northern California who produces delicately crafted

Tracks:
1.1 Sweet Wilma on Maneuvers
1.2 Whiplash Phantasm Beneath the Drywall
1.3 Chipple
1.4 Monkupine
1.5 Melody for a Westbound Ghost Train
1.6 Pupcin
1.7 Ten Minnows
1.8 Ember
1.9 Pining for 1997
1.10 Beard of Bees
1.11 Troublems
1.12 Let the Rhythm Point... Quickly... Yogi