Hal McGee Profile

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "Great masterpiece of post - children - naive - psycho - experimental - dada-music. Reminds me at a session I made with Robin, my brother's son (I don't know the english word for Neffe, sorry). Nice to get your email-infos, Hal, nice to own some of your countless CDs... highly reccomended for everyone who likes it unconventional !!!" -- (posted 10/03/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "This is another fine mix Hal. It's an excellent mix of a very varied audio pallet. Indeed, you paint with sound with the confident "brush strokes" of a Master. Well done.
Dave" --davefuglewicz (posted 09/30/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "This is funky man, u even used pops loops (props for that)! Oh Yeah by the way, thanks for saving my life that time when I fell in the pool!" -- (posted 09/26/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "I know Kid Cacophony. He looks suspiously like a brother of mine. I know and understand his art. There is a place in time where you need to accept art for art's sake -- in other words, either ignore it completely or embrace it with all it's beauty and flaws.

Why ask any artist the meaning of their work? What does it mean? is a futile and unanswerable question for most artists, be they painters, musicians, poets, or sculptors.

Hal has shown once again that artists express themselves through their own reality. It's a worthwhile communication, not always understood or well received by the mainstream. But important in terms of pure communication through art.

I have at least five of Hal's paintings hanging in my house in Italy. They are Pollock inspired, but somehow better because Hal made them. I recently visited the Guggenheim museum in Venice and saw original Pollacks. They didn't compare favorably to Hal's works.

Hal is the artist, lives his life through his art. I am the poet, the visionary. Our younger brother is the gifted percussionist. We all live through art, just different forms of the same expression.

Cacophony is a word that means chaos in music. I hear no chaos, understand the message, and celebrate it's beauty.

Well done. Brava!

" -- (posted 09/26/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "Now you know why I own around 30 of hal`s CD`s. He just keeps getting better." -- (posted 09/26/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "It must be said, or at least typed, that Hal has captured perfectly the angst and its attempted remedy in the head of Hapoleon's boy, the Duke of Reichstadt, in luxurious captivity in an Habsburg palace. Reduced in scope from casring struggle under skies from Cadiz to Tilsit, Hal here has his angst and his remedy contending in a match under the skull instead, a little Austerlitz by the brain stem, a Wagram raging in the cortex, a Lepizig there suddenly playing out in the cerebellum and a treaty with Alexander considered quite possible in a cerebrum convolution where flows a little Nieman river made of seretonin, there by the end as all attendeed dance to that theremin. Masterful and awe-striking, Hal and a solace to his partisans whether they know they are or not. " --buzzsaw (posted 09/26/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "I like it Hal. I remember you wrote this in Rigodon #1:
"(...)the worst part for me is that much of Noise seems highly impersonal. I am not interested in audio art in which the artist has removed his personality. In fact, just the opposite. I want to hear audio art that reveals something of the artist's life experiences -- not in a confessional way -- but in an psycho-emotional, existential way. Let's face it, as far as audio art goes, it's all been done before. What remains for us as audio artists is to present unique soundpictures that reveal something unusual or different about our individual experiences.
As far as I am concerned, the audio artist who employs noise structures should magnify, should increase the range of sound materials he uses -- not reduce them! There is this big audio canvas in front of him. Why does he only throw a few globs of grey and brown paint at one corner of the canvas and then smear it around a little. Hell, I want to see reds, and oranges, and deep vivid yellows & blues, and lurid green tones -- and black of course.
Also, what has happened to fun and a sense of humor? Much of what I have heard from Noise artists is kind of emotionally-blank or merely trashy in an off-hand way. I am no fan of shitnoise. Shitting is for the toilet. Audio art is for the mind.
I think that audio artists need to forget about genres and just make sounds! Noise, ambient, techno, and a million-zillion other sub-genres are just limitations and restrictions on creativity. Whatever happened to Experimental Music, in which the artist explores new possibilities, new ideas, really stretches his imagination? Forget about boundaries. Forget about fitting into a genre or style. Welcome failure! -- because out of failures arise new, previously-unthought-of sound structures.
I have called much of my work "organized accidents". I am not afraid to fail. I do not fear miscues and mishaps. When I have the audio canvas in front of me I am going to throw everything at it!(...)
Well, I thinks this recording illustrates exactly what you mean.
" -- (posted 09/26/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "excellent collage of insanity! one of those mixes where you'll notice something different with each listen! great pic too!" -- (posted 09/25/05)

Call Me Kid Cacophony... "Really enjoying this cacophonious (sp)? mix...Reminds me of Chuck in parts,but done much better I think...Tasty & the picture of Hal as a young lad :-)Nice job all way round !" --Mental Anguish (posted 09/25/05)