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Matt Weston, "Searchlight Swings"
Matt Weston’s last release, the Organum-esque scrape and drone fest "Kidnapping Denials/Put on a Good Face" did an exemplary job at capturing him in his natural habitat as a percussionist, albeit a rather unconventional one. While that was based upon live recordings, his newest 7" is a bit more multi-instrumentalist and studio-centric in its approach. Made up of two rather brief pieces, it is a tantalizingly short yet fully engaging single.
On the A side, "Searchlight Swings" is underscored by gargantuan, timpani like rhythms and the tell tale buzz of a guitar amplifier.From here he adds oddly tense bits of interference and alarm-like tones that cut through abrasively.By the end he has worked in sped-up voices and what could be a car alarm, resulting in an unsettlingly erratic, challenging and complex bit of music, all in the span of around three minutes.
For the flip side, "Is That Helicopter Over Our House?" is a somewhat less confrontational piece.Instead Weston works more with rudimentary beat boxes and eccentric synth tones in an idiosyncratic, and somewhat fun sounding work.On the whole it is more traditionally structured, and once the horn-like bits are brought in, feels like a lost pre-Mix Up Cabaret Voltaire outtake in the best possible way.
Weston works within the format of the 7" single very well here, pairing a more difficult, disquieting piece with a lighter, quirkily catchy one.Perhaps the greatest limitation is that there are really only a few minutes here, which only led to me wanting more to be added.Looking at his discography, it seems like solo albums are not really his thing, which is admittedly somewhat frustrating when I just wanted to hear more of this once the record was finished.As it stands though, it is a brilliant combination of two distinctly different pieces of music, but both bearing the mark of a truly unique composer and performer.
