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10 May 2009

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Albums and Singles

Area C’s newest release borrows its theme from a passage in Claudius Aelian’s On The Characteristics of Animals (written around 200 AD); specifically one that states that doves can protect themselves from wizard attacks by using bay-tree shoots for their nests. From the same book, I also learned that beavers often elude predators by chewing off their own testicles. I suppose I‘m digressing though. I should probably mention that this is an excellent album at some point. I will find another forum for my ramblings about our delightful and industrious mammalian friends.

Students of Decay

Providence's Eric Carlson has been performing as Area C since 2002, largely alone but sometimes with occasional collaborators like Joel Thibodeau of Death Vessel. His work has historically been made with an arsenal of a guitar, a farfisa, a sampler, and a recorder, but he appears to have left the farfisa in the closet this time around. I found some pictures of him performing live and was surprised not to see a laptop sitting on-stage with him, as this album seems very meticulously composed and features a healthy amount of electronic glitchery. Regardless of the enigmatic process, something undeniably remarkable has been emerging from his nest of pedals and wires lately: this first album for tireless drone-purveyors Students of Decay shows a marked evolution from Area C's earlier works. Charmed Birds unveils a warmer, more rhythmic, and more distinctive aesthetic.

"Composition Journal" opens the album with a lazy looping and shimmering drone that is intermittently disrupted by stabs of white noise. The rhythmic foundation of the track is a locked-groove that approximates what Neu might sound like after taking a near-fatal amount of downers, which suits the track beautifully: anything more intrusive would break the fragile, sleepy spell that the multiple layers of guitars have painstakingly woven. As the track progresses, it is masterfully enhanced by some sublimely beautiful treated-guitar washes and given emotional color by minor-key low-end swells. Around the midway point, the rhythmic throb is removed to reveal a languid and sensual bed of sparkling ambient bliss. That, however, is quickly enveloped by a swarm of electronic glitches which themselves ultimately dissolve into an outro of incandescent mournful swells.

The rest of the album largely follows a similar (albeit sometimes less stunning) vein, with few exceptions (like the sparser and darker "Of Set Purpose, No Arrangement"). However, I am more than happy with the aforementioned vein, as Carlson far exceeds similar artists in his feel for melody, dynamics, and arrangements. He also exhibits a purposeful deliberation that is all too rare in the underground improv scene. Bluntly speaking, drone music constructed from guitar loops has the potential to be meandering and spectacularly, infuriatingly dull. Carlson skillfully avoids this pitfall with an intuitive understanding of how long a particular theme can unfold before it becomes tiresome, as well as a knack for graceful transition. He also grasps that even the most beautiful, warm, shimmering drone can start to seem syrupy and boring in large doses, so he has artfully expanded his tonal palette with harsher crackling and rhythmic throbs.

There are several other striking tracks here, but I am most fond of "Sleeping Birds" (which is very effectively enhanced by a crackling cut-up field recording of deceased poet Robert Greeley) and the epic twenty-minute title track, which marries elegant slide guitar to a slow-motion crackling pulse and an endless melancholy backwards-sounding guitar loop.

The English language does not contain a sufficient amount of synonyms for "shimmering," "nuanced," and "warm" for me to effectively describe this album. I am thoroughly impressed. Carlson's earlier albums have been quite promising and likeable, but this is the work of a formidable artist hitting his stride (but presumably not his peak).

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09 May 2009

Albums and Singles

Despite having been recorded more than a decade ago with somewhat fledgling technology, Jim's 2001 laptop masterpiece still sounds fresh and vibrant today. That is no small accomplishment, given the avalanche of laptop-based improv works that followed in its wake.

09 May 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Across the 16 tracks on this disc, the duo of Mark Fell and Mat Steel have taken a clinical, sterile study of the most simplistic and rudimentary of classic techno and electro rhythms that, through their deliberate sense of repetition, forces one to hear all of the subltities that are missed when presented in a more danceable context.

Raster-Noton

While consisting of a series of untitled tracks, the sense is more that this is a single long piece with track markers put in for convenience, the segments more or less self-contained, but obviously intended to be heard within series. The modus operandi of the album becomes clear once the second track starts: a stiff, rhythmc sequence of bell-like analog tones cuts through the silence, resembling almost the first bar of “Blue Monday” cut apart and isolated. Eventually a handclap focused analog rhythm comes in, safely pushing it into early 1980s electro territory. Being the longest track here, the minimalist development is a liability, as the track feels too slow to get started.

The fifth track is similar in its obsessive fascination with a single sound, this time the analog bass synth sound. Allowed to run throughout in its basic structure, it is subjected to numerous pitch shifts and spring reverb, eventually getting locked into an electro rhythm before stuttering and falling apart. Texturally, this is revisited towards the end on the 13th track, though in this case within an erratic, extremely randomized rhythm.

Even the early 1990s gets a nod early on, with track 3 taking the old school robotic electro sound forward with house influenced synth stabs that harken to the days of old, but with that granular synthesis/fancy technology sort of edge. By the middle of the disc, the comparisons to other similar projects are inevitable. The more simplistic tones but random skittering rhythms are not that far from the modern work of one time tourmates Autechre, though here it feels much less like a statistical equation quantizing a synthesizer.

Some of the shorter connecting tracks are even notable in their own right: the fifth track is one simple tone that is stretched for an entire minute, but it doesn’tf eel forced or just doen for technological ease. Instead, it becomes a slow, cautious study of sound, with each slight variation becoming a major focus.

By the end of the disc, the pacing becomes slower, and the final set of three tracks examine the decay of a rhythm, going from a slow, awkward rhythm into glitchy cut-up chaos to a final silence that ends the disc. The disc is one that is more listened to for artistic appreciation than any sort of casual listening though, as the tracks are too stripped down and nuanced for background listening. It’s not good for doing housework or while at the job, but with a good set of headphones and time to appreciate it, it’s a very strong work.

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09 May 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Despite having been recorded more than a decade ago with somewhat fledgling technology, Jim's 2001 laptop masterpiece still sounds fresh and vibrant today. That is no small accomplishment, given the avalanche of laptop-based improv works that followed in its wake.

Editions Mego

Jim O'Rourke has had an utterly improbable and singular career. In the span of two decades he has collaborated with nearly every single person in underground music that I admire, ranging from Nurse With Wound to Sonic Youth to Merzbow to Joanna Newsom. He has even done soundtrack work for Werner Herzog, which makes it abundantly clear that O'Rourke was put on earth largely to make me dissatisfied with my own comparatively meager accomplishments. However, while I have generally liked everything that he has been involved with, I have never found any of his work to be stunning to a degree that would warrant such countercultural ubiquity. Of course, I had never heard this particular album, which entirely justifies his status and sets my mind firmly at ease.

The thick, merciless, and unsettling repetition and glitchiness of the opening track ("I'm Happy") favorably calls to mind both Oval and Steve Reich's "Different Trains." The obsessive looping treated guitar (I think) endlessly and subtly morphs, while lower tones create an undercurrent of menace indicating that perhaps Mr. O'Rourke is not happy after all. Eventually, there is an abrupt and jarring shift into a nervous-sounding arrhythmic stuttering pattern that is quite annoying initially. Gradually however, it is augmented by a high-end shimmer and what sounds like a melancholic bowed bass or cello. O'Rourke slowly plunges the stuttering pattern deeper into the mix and the song concludes with the somber beauty of the subterranean strings pushed into the foreground.

"And I'm Singing" is a much cheerier piece, although it is built similarly around thick harmonized loops. However, O'Rourke's bag of tricks also yields some pleasantly melodic piano, a warm purring locked-groove, some odd and inconsistent percussion, and something that sounds like a garbage can falling down a flight of stairs. It continues to escalate in cheery, bouncy intensity until it becomes extremely obnoxious and busy, but then abruptly warps into something that sounds like a sad and ruined caricature of itself. Then it gets fairly irritating again, as it devolves into an amelodic flurry of electronic sounds, buzzing, and clanging. Thankfully, it morphs into an incredibly beautiful stuttering, lurching wall of backwards guitars and plucked acoustic harmonics before it fades out.

The album concludes with a very warm and meticulously constructed drone piece ("And a 1,2,3,4") that sounds like a glacially slow and digitally manipulated field recording of the most heartbroken string quartet in the world. It's an absolutely stunning piece and is probably the most sustained period of brilliance that I have heard on a Jim O'Rourke album. It lasts over twenty minutes and ebbs, swells, and becomes digitally distorted without ever losing its melancholic grandeur or lapsing into the puckish self-sabotage displayed on the early tracks.

Ironically, this entirely computer-based release will not be available digitally (the folks at Editions Mego presumably have an excellent sense of humor), but it does come with bonus disc of similar material recorded around the same time period. The three bonus tracks are enjoyable, but not particularly essential- they lack the warmth and melodicism of the album tracks and veer into harsher, less human territory ("Let's Take It Again From The Top" sounds like it could've been a Merzbow remix of something from the album). That said, the original album is a vital work by one of contemporary music's most intriguing and influential artists.

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03 May 2009

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Albums and Singles

For many writers (myself included), describing a band as being like "early Swans" is a very easy crutch to use. For those who have at least the most passing familiarity with this era, it calls to mind slow, dissonant guitar riffs, a rhythm section that, at loud enough volumes, feels like getting kicked in the groin repeatedly. And above all, Michael Gira’s growed, hate filled vocals that have been attempted, but never surpassed, by other bands. Quite simply, without this material, it is doubtful that "sludge" or "drone" as we know it would exist. Justin Broadrick may have stuck around in Napalm Death to continue grindcore into stagnancy, Sunn O)))’s members would be in faceless black metal bands, and so forth. Unlike some other works with this sort of legendary status, the LPs and EPs that make up this collection sound just as vital and genre defining as they did some 25 years ago. With word that Gira may be reviving the project, and the consistent influence shown in modern bands, it is a perfect time to revisit this unabashed classic.

Young God

Quite simply, without this set of releases, the world would probably not have the likes of Godflesh/Jesu, Nadja, Khanate, Sunn O))), Earth, etc. The original releases on this two disc compilation is ground zero for painfully slow, but undeniably heavy music. Its long title is fully descriptive: the first disc of this set is the Cop LP and Young God EP combined. To be specific, this is what many people think of when they mean "early Swans." The debut EP and the Filth LP came first, but both of them had flirtations with post-punk pacing and other aberrations. The self-titled EP was much faster in tempo, featured saxophone, and owed more to Joy Division than alcohol fueled rage. Filth’s tape experimentations with voice gave it a slightly weird edge, and to be frank, someone could dance to "Big Strong Boss" if they really wanted to. Cop stripped this away to the bare elements of Filth: BPM counts that could barely enter the double digits at times, detuned bass notes that sounded more like the strings were being bashed rather than played, etc.

Through all of this is Michael Gira’s growled and snarled vocals, which end up being a pure indictment of humanity: the disposal of a corpse in "Job," police brutality in "Cop," and the life of Ed Gein in "Young God." It isn’t until this material from the Young God EP that any variation becomes notable: the slightly faster bass/drum rhythm of "Raping a Slave," and the complete dissonance of the title track, and the more varied production throughout. The disc ends with the beginning of the change in the band, "Sealed in Skin" and "Fool" from the singles that would be from Greed and Holy Money. The former maintains the same atmosphere as the prior material, but strips away the guitar and allows in piano, with Gira’s vocals somewhat toned down in comparison.

Hardcore purists often cite this point, which is the same time Jarboe joined the band, as being when Swans began to lose their direction. The simple fact is, would anyone have benefited from an entire career of the same style? I mean, personally, I find it hard to listen to the entire duration of this first disc without any sort of break. Its strength is its repetition and hatred, and, depending on my mood, sometimes it just is too much. In pieces, essentially in the original way the releases were formatted, it’s just fine. I usually play about half of this disc a week just randomly. But to imagine all the subsequent albums sounding like this is a scary thought, and if time had played itself out this way, the respect for the band probably wouldn’t be as great as it is today.

Now, by no means am I a Jarboe apologist, but her appearance on the second disc, the Greed and Holy Money LPs does not hurt the tracks one bit. It is a natural progression in feeling from the prior material, and has some innovations that people often don’t link with the band. Leading off with the "Time is Money (Bastard)" single, one can pretty much hear the creation of big beat industrial. While the song is probably twice the tempo of any other Swans material prior, the thick mechanical rhythm becomes the focus of the song, with just small concessions from guitar and bass quiet in the mix. Gira’s vocals, just as angry as before, bark lines like "you should be violated/you should be raped" with a disgust that one can only be convinced he means them. The similarly up-tempo "A Screw", both in its original and instrumental Holy Money mix, embraces this industrialized vibe as well, a combination of mechanical and organic drums, rhythmic bass and synth horns are far more suited for the dance floor than most Swans fans would like to think.

At other points throughout the slow crawl of Cop appears in different forms, on "Heaven" it is simply added to subtle synth elements and snarling, but minimal guitar lines. The disturbingly tight "Coward" lopes along with the occasional bit of uncomfortable breathing room in the sound. The structure is similar on "A Hanging", but in this case the choir like vocals from Jarboe actually add to the funeral sound more than detract from it. The two tracks she is the lead vocalist on, "Blackmail" and "You Need Me" are actually well done as well: restrained, mournful tones over dramatic, reverbed piano. Unfortunately we all know from here she went onto hysterical vocal histrionics that pushed the band away from this original sound.

From here the band went on to record what is often regarded as their best album, Children of God, which kept some of the violent aggression, but added in more gentle musical elements that eventually pushed them towards the world music edge of The Burning World and into the almost overt goth of Love of Life and White Light from the Mouth of Infinity. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of pretty much every era of Swans through Gira’s work as the Angels of Light, but I don’t think any of their other releases, save for perhaps Soundtracks for the Blind, that so perfectly encapsulated a sound and a style as this collection of LPs, EPs and singles. While it is a daunting listen, simply because this much hatred and disgust compressed into two and a half hours is tough to endure, it is undoubtedly worth the trauma.

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03 May 2009

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Albums and Singles

Wolves' third album is a solid monolith of blistering brutality that will likely make black metal fans very happy. Unfortunately, the more melodically adventurous Malevolent Grain EP hinted they were capable of being much more than merely brutal. Black Cascade is not the album that I was eagerly hoping for at all, but I suppose Nathan Weaver must follow his dark muse to whatever sinister place it takes him. Maybe next time.

Southern Lord

This year's Malevolent Grain EP was a brilliant and brief distillation of everything that makes Wolves In The Throne Room a great band, so it is confounding and disappointing that their newest full-length is less melodic, features less dynamic variation, and is twice as long. Of course, they are still absolutely ferocious and heavy as hell, but Black Cascade offers little that their earlier albums didn't already do more compellingly.

"Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" begins the album explosively with furious tremolo-picking, shrieking vocals, and a frenzied blast beat before shifting into a slower, more melodic interlude that uncharacteristically features a guitar solo (these guys are not big on frills). A lot more happens after that, which is the primary shortcoming of the album: no song is less than ten and half minutes long. I have no problem with extended song lengths, but I am afraid Black Cascade is not multifaceted enough to pull off such a feat. Frustratingly, the individual components of each song are often excellent, but their power is diluted by the endless back and forth between frantic intensity and mid-paced melodicism. The tempo and the actual notes may change, but the omnipresent amelodic throat-shredding vocals and distorted, frantically strummed chord progressions create an inescapable feeling of sameness.

"Ahrimanic Trance" follows essentially the same template, but with a much higher ratio of memorable parts to filler. Regrettably, it clocks in at over fourteen minutes, so it still overstays its welcome in spite of its many positive attributes. Nevertheless, there is an absolutely devastating section in which melancholy, elegant keyboards hover above the frenzied maelstrom and Aaron Weaver's drumming reaches almost jaw-dropping intensity that almost makes it all worthwhile. Unfortunately, the drums are the hapless victim of the second frustrating thing about Black Cascade: the production. Aaron Weaver is an absolutely stupefying drummer and probably could carry this album on his own, but he is hamstrung here by production that de-emphasizes the bass drum. His playing, while undeniably virtousic, is all snare and cymbal. A black metal album without rumbling double-bass is at a serious disadvantage as far as visceral, crushing intensity is concerned. Demonic mayhem and emasculation cannot co-exist.

The remaining two tracks do not stray much from what preceeded them, but offer up occasional welcome surprises regardless. For example, "Ex Cathedra" features some very effective dual-guitar harmonizing in the main riff, a mid-song ambient interlude, and an extremely cool outro. The closing track, "Crystal Ammunition" contains a somewhat dull acoustic guitar interlude, but later makes up for it with a lengthy and beautiful synthesizer and chorused guitar passage. Of course, both tracks are still very long, so there is a lot of unsurprising material as well.

Black Cascade is quite simply too much of a good thing (compounded by less than ideal presentation). There are dozens of great ideas strewn throughout this album, but their power is maddeningly diminished by lack of dynamic variety and overreachingly epic song-structures. While I am sure that I am not the target demographic for this album, I am also certain that the black metal genre is teeming with bands that are single-mindedly focused on speed and intensity and that the Wolves will have to be a bit more innovative and focused on songcraft than this if they want to maintain their place near the top of the infernal, blasphemous heap.

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03 May 2009

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Albums and Singles

Alex Neilson's name shouldn't be unfamiliar around here (drummer for Baby Dee, Current 93, The One Ensemble, and Jandek). The debut of Trembling Bells brilliantly blends ancient themes with individual concerns and traditional song structures with more modern twists. It has as a euphoric balance of dissonance and melody, fine musicianship, emotional conviction, and a sense of humor.

Honest Jon's

My first thought upon hearing Carbeth was to wonder what the members of the Incredible String Band or Fairport Convention might have thought of this recording; with its moments of intense restraint and overblown beauty, slight nods to US country music, soaring voices, echoes of eerie plainsong, and vibrant, ecstatic choruses. I didn't have to wait long for something of a reliable answer, as no less an authority than Joe Boyd (producer of both those earlier groups) is very much in favor of Trembling Bells. And no wonder. Their overall sound sways close to that of an unfussy but expertly mic'd gig; the kind that Boyd consistently arranged.

There's a good contrast between Neilson's thinner voice and Lavinia Blackwall's amazing, almost operatic singing. Their shared vocal duties are particularly good on "I Took To You (Like Christ To Wood)," a track which, after the pair wail "I am getting out of Glasgow...into the endless night" erupts into an unrepentantly full-on reel. The charm of their a cappella piece, "Seven Years A Teardrop", has eluded me so far, but it does provide contrast. Blackwall has also been compared to the unique Sandy Denny, but I can't go along with that. Although she is pretty marvelous here, and does have a similar mournful purity, Blackwall fluctuates sharply between a warbling soprano and a deeper, atonal moan, sometimes in the same verse. When she flips betwen the two, especially on the fabulous "Willows of Carbeth," it's as if she's channeling Judy Collins one second and Nico the next. This song is the obvious highlight, not least as the lyrics hint at mythical or metaphorical transformation: an old device, a staple of North European folk music, to describe the madness and magic of love and reveal the mystique of everyday topics (or cloak them in it). In the song, Blackwall remembers a walk with a former loved one who was naming trees, her favorite being the willow sheltering other couples beside a river. Suddenly rejected, she fails to numb her mind with alcohol and instead recalls little things which remind her of those blissful times, before likening herself to the weeping willow, now merely standing by and watching others love.

All the playing is excellent and well-judged, as is expected from such reknowned improvisers as Neilson. Just as admirable is the firm grasp of simplicity and the mostly non-abstract nature of these songs. "The End Is The Beginning Born Knowing" is a good example of Trembling Bells' approach. It incorporates rapid stream-of-consciousness lyrics and a looping melodic theme, but feels like a remake of some ancient music. Many of the pieces on Carbeth have several changes of pace and cleverly appear to have been cut-up and reassembled in a different order- either with chorus preceeding verse, or slow intro coming at the end of the song, as wistful coda. "Summer's Waning" is one exception, maintaining a slow, almost blues-like dirge, close to the style of (1960s UK group) Chicken Shack, from it's first note and memorable opening line: "Summer's waning, I was drinking, to your heath, while mine was fading".

As I'm a sucker for wry, romantic folk, I don't expect to hear a more rewarding record this year and thoroughly enjoyed the rambling references to poets, herbs, crimson lips, blood, dreams, pilgrims, kingdoms, smoking, drinking, stars, trees, nights, incantations, memories, people flying, burdens, the foolish and the wise. But even if these topics don't appeal there's an undeniably satisfactory jangle, crash, and thump to these tracks which will draw in a wider audience. The only complaint with this release is feeling obliged to list the members' impressive other projects! Drummer Alex Neilson backed Jandek on his first live gigs, collaborates with Richard Youngs, has assisted Alasdair Roberts, Ashtray Navigations, Six Organs of Admittance, Will Oldham, The One Ensemble, Baby Dee and Current 93, and has founded Scatter and Directing Hand. Singer Lavinia Blackwall is also in the Pendulums, Black Flowers and Directing Hand. Guitarist Ben Reynolds previously worked with Neilson in Motor Ghost and his solo album How Day Earnt Its Night is out next month: on this showing I can't wait to hear it! Bassist Simon Shaw was the driving force of Lucky Luke, and additional players George Murray (trombone) and Aby Vuillamy (viola) were in the aformentioned Scatter and The One Ensemble.

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03 May 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

A new approach (or at least moniker) for orchestramaxfieldparrish's Mike Fazio, this album presents two separate discs, each individually named, for a double dose of dark and moody ambience as rendered by Fazio's nearly neo-classical approach. Long though it may be, there is enough depth to the material here that suggests numerous listens, yet it is also bare enough that it is just as suitable as background accompaniment, albeit to a consistently grim undertaking.

Faith Strange

The first disc, To the Last Man, features a lengthy presentation of seven pieces each exploring a similarly shaded demeanor materializing and decomposing tonal matter. The shimmering bell-like resonances of "To Touch the Sky" writhe uncomfortably above the dark underpinnings of drone that situate themselves amongst an almost Gothic sonic backdrop infested by gargoyles and ghosts alike. It is a strange, unnerving approach that manages to paint new material with old techniques.

The filmic quality of much of this material is undeniable considering the strength of its spare and evocative mood setting. With delicate placement, each piece here finds new corners and awkward, creeping modes of the same general tone. As the previously mentioned track slips into "Ennoæ," a distant hand drum rhythm brings new color to the bleakness, adding an echoing force behind the thick swabs of blackness being worked with. When a series of pipes come in, the work begins to resemble a mini percussion orchestra, riding atop some steady drone that bobs up and down in untended black waters.

Fazio's greatest abilities lie in his decisions, as each work displays many that point toward a general caution executed in the creation of his pieces. Never one to overindulge himself, Fazio's textures and patterns service the tune far more than any egotistical self-journey. There is a meditative, almost minimalist effect to many of these, as the carefully produced sounds bounce in and out of the mix with trance-inducing effect.

Yet Fazio's signature sound seems to stem far more from Arvo Part than Reich or Glass, while also interweaving an almost proggy sense of the dramatic. "Ecquænam" may be short, but it has enough dramatic flourishes to make it an ample close to the first disc. "1/1" opens the next disc in a seeming homage to Eno's Music for Airports, a connection made stronger by the title of the disc and its close approximation to Eno's collaborative effort with Robert Fripp on "An Index of Metals." If greater convincing is required, then it can be found in the ambient structures constructed throughout, as the aforementioned proggy elements are brought to the fore and coaxed into writhing electronic sculptures that bend and sway against the skies.

The two discs represent a fine and strongly crafted construction that, though quite a lot for one listen, serves its listener well over the course of numerous re-dippings into the cold waters. That these are as beautiful as they are only makes the darkness more alluring, as the closing "1/3" certainly displays. Almost a half-hour long, the piece builds slowly through static mine fields and church bells. It may be intimidating, and it may long, but the allure of such a mystique can't be denied.

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03 May 2009

Albums and Singles

A new approach (or at least moniker) for orchestramaxfieldparrish's Mike Fazio, this album presents two separate discs, each individually named, for a double dose of dark and moody ambience as rendered by Fazio's nearly neo-classical approach. Long though it may be, there is enough depth to the material here that suggests numerous listens, yet it is also bare enough that it is just as suitable as background accompaniment, albeit to a consistently grim undertaking.