Take a trip with MICKEY O’HARA through the tunnels of time, that once discovered will allow a form of time travel through at least our universe. Wormholes. The tracks for Bill and Ted’s elevator. O’HARA humanly jutting out from Worcester’s acidic gut. He gave us a glimpse into the deep and dark cavern of Worcester’s own universe with his WORCESTER’S FINEST 2013 YEAR END LIST passed via encrypted digi-note to the Hassle, end of 2013. And he would know because he actually IS one of Worcester’s finest. Worcester is living and MICKEY O”HARA is living in it, and creating squelching feedback from his mixer that passes for true dimensional shifting music, as noted previously.
MICKEY works over at THE FIREHOUSE located in Worcester, MA, much the same as POLAR BEVERAGES. THE FIREHOUSE, in case you are unacquainted, is that inspiring “housing co-op / artist & mechanic studio / performance space” particular to Worcester, but inspiring in one million ways to everyone everywhere, including in a very large way us here @ BOSTON HASSLE. THE FIREHOUSE self-describes as a “democratic, autonomous space for artists, musicians, hackers, makers, activists, and others to live, collaborate, display their work, and share their work with the greater public.” Doing it differently, and making it work all while allowing art to pour freely. If we at the Hassle, once we find a way to open our own similarly minded performance & art space, can ever be anywhere near as inspiring, instigating, and supportive of the community and the (and its) arts as THE FIREHOUSE is, we’ll have accomplished quite a lot. And of that band of free-thinkers that has created, and maintains such a place is MICKEY O’HARA. He put out a tape called SIX PULSES on Massachusetts’ own, in fact Worcester’s own, the very cool, MOSS ARCHIVE. Two 30 minute winding, at times shrieking; rhythmically pulsing, then droning and absolutely placid artifacts of shredded sound waves. Not completely continuous recordings, each longer piece appearing to be several long pieces latched together, but it nearly feels that way. The tapes’ notes proudly rebuke the idea that this is sample based music, stating bluntly, “All material generated by mixer feedback.” Once I really considered that notion regarding the sounds I was listening to I became truly impressed by the spectrum of feeling and shape that O’HARA has the ability to harness via his mortar of noise. Let his feedback lasers pierce the brain you were born with. Ride the sound waves of Worcester as they shimmer, grinning down below toward the Valley of the Synthesizer, and exploding into the other side of the fringe of our universe.
