Megaton for Wm. Burroughs

If you aren’t overly attached to your laptop, a listen to this disc might just inspire you to dust off that old soldering gun and tangle yourself in a web of patch chords. Of course the tactile heyday of live electronic music is far behind us, but a listen back to Gordon Mumma’s Megaton for Wm. Burroughs will reveal a sophisticated use of the medium, a sort of sonic terrorism. The composer conceived the work as a theatrical event, which begins in darkness with a four-minute monolithic wall of noise. In examples such as this, it’s easy to hear how Mumma’s cybernetic approach informs many of today’s hackers and circuit benders.

—RN