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Frank Rosaly, "Centering and Displacement"
An established drummer and improviser, Rosaly takes this background into a different direction, dissecting and reassembling his own improvised recordings into a structured, though intentionally chaotic composition. While the drums make for the most identifiable sound, the non-percussive elements are just as essential, resulting in an album that occasionally calls to mind the best moments Organum, but stands firmly on its own.
The first side of the LP leads off aggressively, with guttural, overdriven bass frequencies and rhythmic undulations that eventually make room for the drums.For the most part, Rosaly's playing is metered and sparse, but provides an effective drive to the piece, made all the more effective by the occasional percussive outburst.This combination of steady, metronomic playing and pseudo-blast beats continues, enshrouded by the overdriven, but tasteful layers of noise, before throwing in some abrasively sharp metal crashes.
Dropping to silence, it slowly comes back together via effected buzzes and high-pitched drones that wobble in and out of audible frequencies.It then segues into full on gamelan percussion, pure and resonant, to push the sound into a different place entirely.It is on a fragmented, sputtering note that the first half ends, letting bits of gamelan and metallic chimes drift off in entropy.
The flip side immediately comes across as darker and more sinister, with treated feedback and creaking metal setting the stage.Bent percussion and demonic metal scrapes lurk, channeling seriously evil images without becoming overly aggressive.Eventually the piece falls apart again to a more electronic sounding passage before closing on full bore percussive polyrhythms, again bringing a malignant darkness.
Centering and Displacement was originally conceived as a six-channel installation by the artist, although Rosaly considers this stereo mix to be the definitive one.Admittedly, I would love the opportunity to hear the full multi-channel mix, since I am curious how both the more frenzied and contrasting sparse moments would be spread across that spectrum.However, this LP stands strongly on its own, and does an excellent job at balancing the raw, chaotic moments with the calmer, pensive ones.It does seem to be a contradiction to the idea of improvisation by using it as a jump-off point for tightly organized composition, but I can not argue with the results.
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