Review: Three Minutes In A Carpark (Compilation)

Curated by Jordan Marson (Paint Your Golden Face / Hobart + Music = Yeah! / oceans), Three Minutes In A Carpark is as much a personal project as it is a celebration of music being at ease as ‘art’. Or, a celebration of art being at ease as ‘music’. Either way you slice it, Three Minutes In A Carpark is the result of one’s acceptance of the music/art paradigm as little more than an imaginary line of thought.

Presented by/in association with Hobart artist run initiative Six_a, Three Minutes In A Carpark is an exploration of mostly Australian sound art and noise music. Tbe compilation is made up of mostly unreleased and live tracks, which is an important element in a compilation in maintaining both identity and relevancy. Particularly in a tight-knit music community such as Hobart, new and exclusive material from existing artists is vital. Three Minutes In A Carpark is a consistent listen, even as it spans rock music (Moe Grizzly – Stark Shake); beautiful noise (Tom Hall – We Stand Between Roots Below); improvised music (Soundtracks Will Dissolve – Excerpt); and almost non-existent ambiance (mumblespeak – Points of Light).
The CD begins with the aforementioned Tom Hall track, which is an entry into an electronic sound journal of someone who’s come to peace with his surroundings. It’s a subtle entrance to the compilation, at first pronouncing the possible beauty of noise before revealing the crunching sound of The Love In or Moe Grizzly.

‘Dirge’, the only currently recorded & released document from The Breeze, is easily one of the CDs highlights. Though it follows a far more traditional use of instruments compared to most of the compilation, it is undeniably an aural delight. A pop song, a rock song, a noise song, it doesn’t really matter; it’s one of the best.

Hobart local Michael Valentine contributes ‘Bleh’ under his The Love In moniker, and it could very well be his best solo work as of yet. Another unreleased song, it is much harsher than any of Valentine’s recent output, and similarly straddles the line between noise and conventional song writing, due to its abstract and loose nature.

Marson’s own oceans outfit contributes ‘untitled 6’, which here is a symbol of his own personal gain from Six_a and its hosted works. An attempt to understand (and evoke) the art of dissonance, ‘untitled 6’ is a whitewash of premeditated feedback, scribbled over the top of a repeating, but almost soothing, wail.

The linear notes reveal us the story of why this compilation exists. Marson explains his previous ignorance of the art world, and his evolution of this ignorance into exciting acceptance, which has come about mainly through his association with Six_a. Back-story is an important aspect of a successful compilation, and with that in mind, here is a collection of songs that represent one’s engagement with the idea that music is art, and vice versa. The only catch is, these songs aren’t necessarily for the compiler himself, and are as much for the audience.

The intention of Three Minutes In A Carpark, I suspect then, is to bring others into a similar realisation of this music/art paradigm. It exists as much to provoke thought and encourage exploration as it does to satisfy existing fans of the included worlds. On the whole it isn’t a mind-blowing CD, but it never claims to be. Saying that, if you’ve yet to dip your toe into these murky noise/art waters, you may just have your foot blown off.

&c.