PITA

Get off

CD, Häpna

Funny, how Pita always pops up here and there in my life. My first memory of Peter Rehberg (Pita’s real name) was that of him reading the intro “Kämpfen die Kräfte” for the last record of Viennese rockband Occidental Blue Harmony Lovers, which was a direct translation of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” done by software. Next he used a picture of the buildings I grew up in as a cover for his first record. Then we did an interview with them and he told us all about the cat, the Jaguar and Wipeout on PSX. A year later I partied on new year’s evening in a flat that was on top of the studio that Mego, the label that Pita has a leading role in together with Ramon Bauer, was situated in. I won’t mention the pita-bread filled with eggs and onions that we ate at home, while our oven was out of order and all we had was a table toaster, because that pita has nothing to do with Pita, but of course, the name reminded me. Moreover, this should mainly be about the music, and music is what counts on all releases of Pita. And also because he might be the most consequential and uncompromising electronic soundscaper around. He never shies away from any sound just because it might not be aesthetically coherent or as likeable as people would want them to. These sounds are not ambient, i.e. they won’t back down into an acoustic tapestry for your modern living comfort. These sounds will make themselves heard. Accordingly, “Get off” is the first release by Pita – aside from compilation-tracks – that is not on his Mego-homebase.

Usually, the reactions towards Pita’s music range from awkward but interested to openly hostile (“put that shit out”). His cataclysmic approach towards sound, which takes equally from all sides and never spends a single thought on the listener, puts people off, rather than enriching them. That is because people are always afraid of what they don’t know (which is why in turn artists like Pita and Fennesz are so important for proving the equality between sounds that sound good and those that sound, well, “different”.) and so people miss out. As if using sandpaper, Pita is tirelessly rubbing away one layer of self-imposed thought after the other until the listener stands naked to the bones. He uses various tactics, trying to get to the core of his vision, in the meantime erasing listeners from the surface of the boardgame like no other artist. I mean, listening to Merzbow becomes easy with time. The ears get used to a constant wall of sound – as beautiful as it might be – and with a little training (what a stupid idea – you have to want it…) you can realize and find the harmonies and richness in Masami Akita’s work. Pita is different. He’ll give you no time to get used to anything.

“Get off” is an intensive half an hour indeed. Bursts of noise stand side to side to spheric, widescreen drones of dark, echoy places that always make me think of rusty industry halls with machinery working nearby. Pita drops you from one pool of extraordinary sounds into the next without hesitation. For instance “Babel” starts as a furious jazzfunk (in the Gristle-Sense) noise-freak, but soon turns into chaotic noise-collages that last for another minute or so, filled with bristling cracks, screams and screeches. The final track, “retour”, on the other hand is a minimal, high-pitched drone of nine-minutes length with nothing much happening but a few frequencies layering over each other, softly trying to subdue each other. I guess, it is those high-pitched frequencies that always make people most nervous when confronted with Pita’s music, and the relentless, pounding but usually hidden rhythm of unpleasant noises. Or the remarkably titled “like watching shit on a shelf”, that will open the doors for any reviewer to write down his most intimate, apocalyptic, innermost visions and daydreams. Since I never liked stream of consciousness reviews, I’ll skip that and suffice it to say, that this is a great and intimidating sound in its sparseness. Remember, if you look into the abyss, the abyss will also look into you. Such is that effect.