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Dean Roberts, "Be Mine Tonight"
Kranky
Dean Roberts begins his new three song album on Kranky with a steadydrone which, on first listen, seems to promise (or at least implies)that the entire 35-minutes of the CD will feature this drone. I havelistened to enough experimental rock albums to know that an initialdrone offering will often persist and become a final drone coda, withonly subtle key alterations and modulations to lend it some"experimentalism." But about two minutes into "All Pidgins Sent to War,Palace of Adrenaline V. & E.E." a softly-struck piano emergesthrough the monotone, signaling a nice diversion from my expectations.Instead, Roberts delivers something lighter, something more palatable,more spare, even something more lyrical. At this point, the songblossoms instrumentally, with guitar, brushed cymbals, lightpercussion, upright bass, and plodding piano all tentatively joiningtogether with Roberts's voice. It all sounds rather improvisational,with the guitars mulling over the same measured progressions while theother instruments meander over the guitars. All this is done at arather slow pace. Roberts seems to justify his deliberateness withimprovisation. At the end of the first track, the spareness gathersitself and makes one last valiant attempt at density. It feels as ifthe players are almost strangling the last bit of life out the theirinstruments. Witnessing this instrumental asphyxiation, I felt someslightly perverted pleasure when I thought about this act done solelyon my behalf, or on the behalf of the listener. It's like seeing aboyfriend pummel another boy for talking to you, just to show you hecan. It's sick, but it's also impressive to demand such brutality.Speaking of brutality, Roberts's voice on the first song wavers notunlike the white winged moth he uses as another moniker for hisrecordings. It is not a pleasant or soothing voice and it has thenagging after-effect of an untrained instrument, like a third gradeoboe. But it gets better. In the more compact (5 minutes, versus 19minutes and 11 minutes on the two other songs) "Disappearance on theGrandest of Streets," Roberts finds a definitive melody and tune forhis voice and the song is bolstered by it. This song is the mostconfident offering of the three, whereas the other two range a littletoo far this way and that way, with too much space and time betweenthem. Likewise, the most compelling part of "All Pidgins..." is thelast two minutes (though the second half of this 19-minute compositionis genuinely excellent and, perhaps, a song distinct from the firsthalf in and of itself). It seems that both Roberts's voice and songsflourish within boundaries, a moth which does its best fluttering in ajar. -
Dean Roberts begins his new three song album on Kranky with a steadydrone which, on first listen, seems to promise (or at least implies)that the entire 35-minutes of the CD will feature this drone. I havelistened to enough experimental rock albums to know that an initialdrone offering will often persist and become a final drone coda, withonly subtle key alterations and modulations to lend it some"experimentalism." But about two minutes into "All Pidgins Sent to War,Palace of Adrenaline V. & E.E." a softly-struck piano emergesthrough the monotone, signaling a nice diversion from my expectations.Instead, Roberts delivers something lighter, something more palatable,more spare, even something more lyrical. At this point, the songblossoms instrumentally, with guitar, brushed cymbals, lightpercussion, upright bass, and plodding piano all tentatively joiningtogether with Roberts's voice. It all sounds rather improvisational,with the guitars mulling over the same measured progressions while theother instruments meander over the guitars. All this is done at arather slow pace. Roberts seems to justify his deliberateness withimprovisation. At the end of the first track, the spareness gathersitself and makes one last valiant attempt at density. It feels as ifthe players are almost strangling the last bit of life out the theirinstruments. Witnessing this instrumental asphyxiation, I felt someslightly perverted pleasure when I thought about this act done solelyon my behalf, or on the behalf of the listener. It's like seeing aboyfriend pummel another boy for talking to you, just to show you hecan. It's sick, but it's also impressive to demand such brutality.Speaking of brutality, Roberts's voice on the first song wavers notunlike the white winged moth he uses as another moniker for hisrecordings. It is not a pleasant or soothing voice and it has thenagging after-effect of an untrained instrument, like a third gradeoboe. But it gets better. In the more compact (5 minutes, versus 19minutes and 11 minutes on the two other songs) "Disappearance on theGrandest of Streets," Roberts finds a definitive melody and tune forhis voice and the song is bolstered by it. This song is the mostconfident offering of the three, whereas the other two range a littletoo far this way and that way, with too much space and time betweenthem. Likewise, the most compelling part of "All Pidgins..." is thelast two minutes (though the second half of this 19-minute compositionis genuinely excellent and, perhaps, a song distinct from the firsthalf in and of itself). It seems that both Roberts's voice and songsflourish within boundaries, a moth which does its best fluttering in ajar. -
