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Aidan Baker and Ultra Milkmaids, "At Home With..."
Infraction has been a label to watch for some time. With each newrelease the label showcases a list of consistently excellent artistswhom are always trying to bend sound towards new pleasures.Infraction
According to their website, Ultra Milkmaids have been around for overten years, starting as a punk band and slowly evolving towardsinstrumental rock and hazier musical ventures that has culminated onthis disc with Aidan Baker, someone that should be familiar if properattention has been paid. The disc begins as though a blanket is beingdrawn across the sky and an eternal night is ready to spread its jawover the world — the music is sleepy and soft, buzzing with the warmthof dying guitars. A brief silence ensues and then, as though a chesthas been ripped open during surgery, the movement of blood, the pumpingof the heart, the magnified movement of a million cells, and thetwitching ache of sedated muscle become obvious and the yawning guitarstake on a far more involved texture, scratching and extending into thebody and eviscerating it. The sound isn't threatening, it's simply andbeautifully observational, like watching the wonder of the human bodyat work with every detail focused and steady. The album changesdrastically over its three tracks, the second being the most loving andgentle.. "Stretched Guitars Lie Slo" bleeds and sweeps in a cloud ofhumming keyboards, bubbling melody, and the march-like pulse of a snaredrum crackling slowly in the background. Much like watching the flightof a large bird, the music is epic and soft in its contours, turns, anddives. No sound seems capable of overpowering the other and, as aresult, it's possible to think that this record can't possibly bechanging, that it's melodic and textural movement is pure illusion.I've not been this immediately captivated by a record of this sortsince I began listening to electronic music. It encompasses everythingI've always thought should happen on a record of this kind - majestic,careful melody aimed high and backed by the most subtle of variationscombined with emotionally gripping or familiar sounds. The closingtrack brings everything down with a clothed shine, the color of yellowand dreamed-white awash with microscopic activity. Each second on At Home With...is granular, almost tangible in its spectral movement. It issimultaneously cosmic and biological, providing a panorama or arch thatbegins in the body and ends somewhere in space.
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