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The Hope Blister, "Underarms/Sideways"
A rerelease and reworking of long out-of-print album, this two-CD set was worth the wait. The second CD, Sideways, a remix of the first CD, 1998's Underarms. Underarms itself is a reworking of The Hope Blister's ...Smile's OKalbum. Trying to describe this album is like looking into two mirrorsfacing each other: the music echoes and comes back to itself, rather likemirrors reflecting the same image into each other for eternity. 4AD
The intro of "Sweet Medicine" is a hazy echoing clock, then the trackabruptly moves into an ebbing and flowing drone. Keeping the title inmind, it makes me think of coma patient rising to the surface ofconsciousness and struggling to comprehend what is seen there. "FridayAfternoon" is another hazy track: peaceful with buzzing insects, theitch of grass, and the atmosphere of a dense humid afternoon. "Iota"holds more interest and tension manipulated electronic sounds punchingthrough the drone. This one could be the soundtrack to a spacewalk."Dagger Strings" brings in strings sliding over and merging into ashimmer of slow heavy melody. The strings return in the closing track"Happiness Strings," a beautiful and gentle song that is probably themost natural sounding on the album. It's often hard to tell when onetrack ends and the next begin, they melt into each other so seamlesslyit could be one constantly shifting song. Though it razors through myspeakers in places and sometimes rises with a throbbing urgency, it'snever a shocking change and feels organic and natural to the point ofseeming inevitable, despite the music's obvious electronic origins.
Sideways is the Underarms disk remixed into a blurry drone. It's a smooth river rock of an album, with few of the rough edges of Underarms.It's pleasant and enjoyable, but it's not radically different from,say, the "Sweet Medicine" tracks on Underarms, with the spacey blurpsof "Iota" arising on "Sideways 4."
I can see myself often putting on these CDs for an evening curled upwith a thick book, a glass of chianti, and maybe a dozing cat at myfeet.
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