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The Staubgold site helpfully offers this quotation from Ehlers: "The'Plays' series deals with 'reference' ... Everyone is sampling;sampling is the figure of historic devices in digital music. My idea isnot to sample, but to refer to historic places and figures." And so herefers not only to musicians (Albert Ayler, Cornelius Cardew, andRobert Johnson) but to actor and director John Cassavetes, and theenigmatic Hubert Fichte, who is variously documented on the web as aqueer theorist, an anthropologist, and a beat poet.
These referential intentions work well for the most part, reversing theusual process of listening to music based on sampled material: insteadof noticing or just assuming I'm hearing "quotations" from other music,I've tried to decode it using my knowledge—however pitiful at times—ofits subject.
Thankfully, though it may enrich it, knowledge of the five subjects'biographies is not essential to appreciating the music. "PlaysCornelius Cardew", one of the 7"s, and "Plays John Cassavetes", one ofthe mini-LPs, are basically drone and loop-based, using organs andviolins—sometimes as walls of sound, others more sparsely. Ehlers takesa much more interesting approach on the "Plays Albert Ayler" and "PlaysHubert Fichte" mini-LPs, confidently subjecting raw recordings to hisdigital knife. These are the must-listen highlights of the CD. "PlaysHubert Fichte" puts lazily picked guitar from Joseph Suchy in thebackground of a night chorus of buzzing and chirping modifications,like improvisation overheard on a hot evening. The meticulouslyarranged "Plays Albert Ayler" uses similar processing techniques but,being based on Anka Hirsch's cello and other orchestralinstrumentation, is more austere and graceful. You may have heard thissort of thing before, but here it's done with a taste and judgmentthat's far from common.
The CD closes with the "Plays Robert Johnson" 7", one side processedguitar fumbling, and the other a micro-house funk-out that's funny butdefinitely out of character with the rest of the series. Nonetheless,it adds to the diversity of this occasionally inspired collection,which confirms Ehlers as one of the best musicians working at thetheory-heavy end of the post-digital scene.
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Teenbeat
For years, singer/songwriter/New Yorker James Balyut has fronted thegroup Versus, cranking out a parade of critically-acclaimed rocking poprecords. With this self-titled long-paying debut album, Balyut hasstepped out, almost entirely alone, into the playing field of thisdecade, merging crafty tunemanship with a heap of drum machines,electronics, and a super clean production that's only ever slightlyrough around the edges. When it's good, it can get really, reallyawesome, with feverishly catchy tunes like "The Queen of Detroit," andthe slow but undeniably forceful, "The Declaration of Independence,"and somewhat sexily messy bursts in "All I Have to Do is Make You."Balyut's acoustic fingerpicking skills are highlighted in numeroussongs, including "The Industrial Revolution," a tune to bring a smileto nearly any David Grubbs fan with a vocal style that has most likelygiven people like Sam Prekop and Marcus Acher more confidence to singwith their timid voices. However, some of the slower moments, like thealbum's opening and the cringeful repetition of "Yo Yo Yo," can be moreembarassing than listening to Pet Shop Boys at loud volumes in public.When a four-piece group is assembled for live shows, the format istranslated almost entirely over to standard rock instrumentation, andthere's never a weak moment. Hopefully with future records, Balyut willbe less wary of letting his teeth show, but for now, this rather quietand laid-back record is more of a bold statement and could easily bodewell with fans of the more electronic side of Clinic who ache for a lotmore musical proficiency and no irony.
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