TRACK LISTING
· aural anagram
· little treatise on morals i. (mademoiselle eagle)
· little treatise on morals ii. (crimes of love)
· needle heel
· little treatise on morals iii.(philosophy in the boudoir) · cephalopod
· transfers
· fur (baston entre meufs à madelonnette)
· little treatise on morals iv. (misfortunes of virtue)

SPECIAL THANKS
Special thanks to the following individuals who lent there time and voices to this recording:
Deborah Maria Butler
Masumi Ellis
Jacob Jessamine Fairminer Bray
Sarah Fairminer Bray
Yumi Gude
Elisabeth Whiteside Hearton Hannah
Julie Hawkins
Clementine Jennings
Ocsana Klingspon
Victoria Louise Lanes
Melon Liles
Charlotte Rose Matley
Claire Elizabeth North
Katy Louise Oliver
Leah Catherine Pickup
Jacqueline Anne Pickup
Sarah Caroline Thompson
Emily Woolins

REVIEWS
Side-Line
It's not really a surprise to know that Andrew is an "art addict". His website abounds in links for interesting sites where aestheticism reigns supreme. This sensibility comes out his ambient sound collages where he reinvents the definition of logic. A logic, where the superficial calm is often broken by oppressing and disturbing atmospheres, like a sleep that will never come. This abstract manipulation creates a feeling of malaise absolutely... concrete. Never our senses have been so shaken by this intelligent and out of time creation. Andrew Liles is certainly the last alchemist of experimental music.

Drone Records
Neues Album des surrealen Briten, der sich hier dem bizarr-erotischen Werke HANS BELLMERS verschrieben hat, und Frauenstimmen collagiert und verfremdet in spannungsgeladene Kompositionen einbaut.. auf der bonus CDR gibt es zusätzlich noch einige Remixe..

Brainwashed
For an album that is right at forty-six minutes long, it sure does seem to last an eternity. The entire record is basically a series of tones accompanied by various passages concerned with or describing sexual perversions. At first this seemed like an exciting enough prospect: Andrew Liles associates Aural Anagram with the various productions of Hans Bellmer. Bellmer was one of the first post-Dada surrealists, his self-portrait appears on the cover and I assume that the artwork in the liner notes is either inspired or drawn by him. The primary sketch on the liner notes depicts a nude woman on her hands and knees with her lower torso "x-rayed" to reveal her womb and sexual organs. At the same time, she is pleasuring three different men who are shown only by the presence of their penis. It's a strange image to be sure, but none of the sexuality in the picture makes it into the music in any way. Each track sounds remarkably the same with various vocal samples describing various perversities or sexual observations made from a nearly medical standpoint. Nothing changes throughout the duration of the recording: many of the tones used have the same color and feel throughout and much of the vocal samples simply repeat themselves into boring oblivion. It sounds more like one long recording than a series of nine compositions inspired by an explicit artist. It may be my hormones talking, but with a premise like this, the album certainly could've been more exciting and retained its rather dark and ominous atmosphere. In the end, that is what makes everything about this recording so dull: it's too dark for too long and with little to no variation in the bleakness of it all. It's an interesting exploration of an artist and an idea but it fails as a composition as a result of being far too limited in scope.

On the other hand, the remix album included with the first one-hundred copies of Aural Anagram is a more cohesive, varied, and interesting exploration of droning sounds and sexual expression. Instead of being a series of nine tracks like the original was, Anal Aura Gram is four tracks tied together very closely so that the recording can be experienced as a whole. By cutting the album down by ten minutes and condensing much of the original material, Liles creates an almost deafening world. It isn't deafening because it's overly loud or overpowering in any way, it's just that the sounds used produce the aural equivalent of claustrophobia. Every sound has a tactile quality, whether it is feathery softness or the cold feeling of making a discomforting observation. More melodic elements are present than on the original and not so much time is devoted to near-silence or frustrating repetition. The vocal samples are used more sparingly and multiple textures are used throughout so that nothing overstays its welcome. This sort of attention to detail adds to the eerie and dire feelings that were attempted on the original mix: various melodic tones float like bubbles and are flourished by rolling sparkles in piano-like ascents and descents. Small buzz-saws cut away quietly in the background while other alien sounds stutter and chop their away across the sound spectrum. Here and there feminine moans and abrupt cries appear and disappear within the mix creating a vaguely erotic tension while maintaining a secretive tone that hints at violence, destruction, and (somehow) infidelity. There are fewer overtly sexual references made, but the ones used are both exciting and unsettling. The re-mixes are everything Aural Anagram could've (and should've) been, so those interested should grab a copy before they all disappear.

Lucas Schleicher
http://www.brainwashed.com

Vital Weekly
ANDREW LILES - AURAL ANAGRAM (CD by Macrophonies) As seen on a recent tour through the USA: performing is Andrew Liles - for the lovers of Coil, The Hafler Trio and Nurse With Wound. Andrew is from Brighton, UK and might not the most known player on the music scene there, but he sure is someone to keep an eye open for. 'Aural Anagram' is his second 'real' CD, after many CDR releases and some vinyl. Despite being divided in nine tracks, I think it's really just one piece. The whole thing deals with painter Hans Bellmer, whom I must admit never heard off, who depicted bizarre images involving female nudes. His drawings, etchings and visual anagrams inspired this CD. So can we say that Liles sound like the aforementioned three? I think it's hard to see Coil and The Hafler Trio, but yes, Nurse With Wound, I can second that. Female voices play an important on this CD. Although I find it hard to understand what they are saying (why do I just understand 'sexual organs' at one point?, maybe that's the idea), the way they speak their texts and the way Liles processes them reminds me very much of the first couple of Nurse With Wound, 'Homotopy To Marie', 'Insect' and 'Ostranenie'. But whereas with good ol' Nurse With Wound they were embedded in a more industrial kind of thing, Liles takes out some of his keyboards and waves together a lush pattern of ambient sounds. Occasionally adding some highly processed 'other' sounds (water, people having sexual intercourse), the overall sound is mostly ambient. One might object that the line (old-) Nurse With Wound and Andrew Liles is short, or that Liles pulls a lot of effect tricks on his music, it's a very nice CD that is certainly worth getting. Compared to 'An Un World' not a step forward - but sideward. 'An Un World' is a collection of nice tracks, 'Aural Anagram' is a nice concept album. (FdW)

RELATED LINKS
Hans Bellmer
Internet Anagram Server