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Keith Fullerton Whitman / Mike Shiflet "070325 b/w 080409"
There's a strong pairing on this album, with Whitman's modular electronic improvisations on one side being balanced out nicely by Shiflet's more spacious, droning textures on the other. There is also a sense of commonality to be heard, which unifies the two sides of this LP, making it feel more like a collaboration and less like a split release.
Whitman's half, "070325" opens with sparse, deep reverberating tones that slowly get heavier and build in complexity, with any sort of pensive discipline upset by modular synth chirps and echoing pauses.Sawtooth waves are shaped into horror movie scrapes and erratic stop/start blasts that keep a sense of discomfort strong.
With the unpredictable sputtering noises, the piece starts to feel like it encroaches on free jazz territory, with square waves and low frequency oscillators mimicking horns and woodwinds.At times what could pass for a didgeridoo appears with a low, almost rhythmic throb, but is frequently interrupted by synth outbursts that could be emanating for a mad scientist’s lair, all dynamic and drawn out until the performance ends with a loping engine idle.
On the flip of this heavy slab of vinyl, Mike Shiflet uses less identifiable tools in his performance of "080409," conjuring up an accordion-like drone that is simple on the surface, but is a microcosm of sound below.The structure changes slowly, but noticeably, so it never becomes too frozen, nor does it jump around harshly.Amid the expansive waves of sound and sputtering, erratic noises there are subtle hints of music buried, but never allowed to be fully heard.
Eventually the mix opens up, reigning in the bulk of the sound to leave subtle, warm tones in a spacious piece of tonal bliss.The peace is short lived, when a low buzzing swarm and what sounds like bass strings rattling appear, pushing the track into more creaky and scary territory.It all builds to a crescendo where I think I heard some actual guitar playing in there somewhere before coming to a swift end.
I enjoy the juxtaposition of the two sides, with Whitman's crazed analog outbursts nicely mediated by Shiflet's more pensive, expansive walls of noise.The two sides almost bleed into each other though, as both artists use elements of the other’s style, and it always fits in quite well.While many split releases sound like each artist simply doing their own thing, here there seems some sort of unspoken, psychic unity between the two that leads to a stronger whole.
samples:
- Keith Fullerton Whitman - "070325"
- Mike Shiflet - "080409" (Excerpt 1)
- Mike Shiflet - "080409" (Excerpt 2)
 
