Fast Falls the Eventide is aural provocateur Mark Spybeys 11th album as Dead Voices On Air, and across a multi-decade career stirring pots experimental, existential, and otherwise, his is a sound that summons any number of nocturnal beasties from the ether. Blink twice, listen carelessly and youll fail to discern the minutiae Spybey meticulously works into every one of the 15 pieces sprawling across the first disc of this 2-CD sets eminent domain. Spybey works hard at his art so you dont have to; rather, as the listener, the participant, the absorber, its more important to ignore categorical tags such as industrial, ambient, soundscape, et al, and instead gorge deeply on a wriggling, sometimes confrontational puzzlebox of sounds erupting from a bevy of mysterious sources.The title of this collection notwithstanding, Spybeys been having his way with rhythm and noise for so long that the motifs hes ascribed over the years are practically commonplace amongst the novice post-industrialist - or, hell, the post-whatever. Throughout the last 25-plus years, hes plied his trade and remarkable sonic mojo both solo and in the company of many a forward-thinking electronic engineer, from guitarists such as Michael Karoli and James Plotkin, to fellow artisans like Skinny Puppys cEvin Key or Rapoons Robin Storey (with whom he feints sounds as Reformed Faction). Its as Dead Voices On Air, however, that some of his most startling ideas emerge fully-realized and fully-armed; of course, to hear Spybey tell it, once art leaves the nest its up to (once again) the recipient to assume the role of engager; My work is created in isolation from external references. That is the ideal I strive for. Only in this way is it possible to allow the listener an opportunity to create their own understanding of the music, or, as the artist Joseph Beuys once said, One should resort to interpretation only in an emergency.Perhaps. Still, theres much expressive bounty to be gleaned from these dark, dusky, evening-soaked works, from the first discs mix of ethnological drum cabals, windswept electronics and scraped edits, up through the immense near-quarter-hour title track, which finds Spybey revisiting the mortal atmospheric coils of former colleagues ;Zoviet*France;. And pulling the whole enterprise together is the second discs first-time digital unveiling of Spybeys opening salvo, the 1994 cassette Abrader, in conjunction with two unreleased tracks originating from the artists early gestations featuring contributions from the aforementioned cEvin Key. New or old, Spybeys continuing vitality ensures these Dead Voices remain gloriously alive and kicking.