Lest you be in any doubt about the label's radical credentials, Elio Martusciello's Aesthetics Of The Machine comes with the following warning: "These recordings are very, very loud. They are dangerous to the ears and for hi-fi systems. Listen with caution. Moderate the volume control." All right! The last album that came with a health warning was Zorn's Kristallnacht, and this one's even more fun. Working with ultrasounds (up to 20,000Hz) and infrasounds (down to 16Hz), all that we perceive, writes Martusciello, is "the result of what has been discarded, the driftage, the limits of technology and our auditory apparatus." Accordingly, the opening "Out of our mind" starts with a god almighty crack (the music, or the loudspeakers already registering disapproval?), and within less than a minute the sub-basses set the entire room shaking. I have a friend with a $30,000 hifi system and electrostatic speakers as tall as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but I'm somehow reluctant to ask him to try this album out, not wishing to be held legally responsible for any structural damage to his property that might result. Remember, as Stockhausen once said, "sounds can kill". Despite the rather scientific nature of the composer's accompanying notes, this is as much music for the body (literally) as it is for the mind; it might not be something one can be said to enjoy, but there is certainly a hell of a lot to feel. (Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic, January 2004)