Two more albums, two more pieces or albums of experimental music while we battle against time and motion and…
Drum Major Instinct x Kramer – Drum Major Instinct x Kramer (Generate Records) – Rather like that nothing is as straightforward as it might appear here, not that it did ever appear (or indeed sound) that straightforward. Drum Major Instinct are an experimental music duo from Asheville, North Carolina, Jeff Arnal plays mostly percussion and Curt Cloninger plays mostly modular synthesiser and for this rather ear catching thirty three and a bit minute piece we find the two of them playing with Bonner Kramer (as bass player Kramer now calls himself) and yes, if you’re asking, it is that Kramer; “Kramer’s work has long shaped the sound of independent and experimental music — as a producer, musician, and founder of Shimmy-Disc. Here, he brings a raw, tactile presence, grounding and destabilising the music at once”. The interplay here between the three of them really works –
“This is a trio session with me on percussion, Curt Cloninger on modular synth, and Kramer on bass. It’s the first time the three of us played together. We set up and just started, and the piece (Eye Contact) unfolded in a single take over about 30 minutes” explains Jeff. It doesn’t sound like the first time, it does feel like they all understand where each of them want to go, it feels right, the whole thing feels right, they sound like experimental musicians who have been playing together and understanding each other for years. Restrained, refined, and yes, three great players, graceful, Jeff Arnal sounds like one of those drummers you’d like to watch, great movement here, great language, great musical conversation between the three of them – “Curt and I have been working together as Drum Major Instinct for a while, developing a long-form language between acoustic and electronic instruments” adds Jeff.
What is there to say about these things? We cherry pick the good ones, we quietly ignore the ones that don’t engage, not that this is just a “thing” or indeed just “another thing”: to these ears this sounds highly original, it sounds different, it is indeed played with a “balletic sense”, it about the time, the colour and yes, those bass lines while Curt Cloninger’s modular work provides the weight and the corners you need to walk around really do work. An obscure reference now I know but to some around here it will still mean something: some of this has the feel and the pleasure of early days Oroonies or Ullulators, those Better Days tapes and the woods being alive, that warm awareness, that chemistry, that almost organic naturalness…. (sw)
Previously…
ORGAN THING: A taste of a Drum Major Instinct live performance in Atlanta back in June…
Chris Irregardless – Honeycomb Ghost Logic – Now those of you who pay particular attention to the detail in terms of the always interesting output of Florida’s Chris Irregardless just might recognise a couple of the pieces of work here on this new album. A just released album that consists of recent singles as well as some new compositions; “This was compiled at short notice from my last three singles and two new tracks. This is supposed to be a journey from the end of a world (The Last Nature Sounds You Will Ever Hear) to a flight to outer space (The Bus Takes The Sky and Slow Orbit) and ending up dispersed into several dimensions (the rest of the tracks)”. Actually, considering the sheer bulk of experimental pieces (vaguely) of this nature that flow this way every week, that some of these pieces on this new album were immediately familiar and the fingerprint almost instantly recognisable, is to the great credit of Chris as an artist.
More carefully crafted precise minimalist explorations that really do appreciate the space and time they exist in. Pieces that breathe so well, or is it that they let the listener breathe? I’m not sure if I’m particularly feeling a journey from the end of the world, but then should I? I mean these almost soundscape pieces allow your mind to wander (or indeed wonder), they surely are going to take each of us, as well as the artist, to wherever we want to be taken at any one given time? Today we might feel space flight, tomorrow we might be in a forest, the day after the same piece of music might take us on a late night train and really it is just about letting in go where you want it to isn’t it? Chris Irregardless is surely giving us the freedom to go where we want to here…
This is a warm album, a warm collection of pieces, once again painterly, once again inviting, settling. The whole album – and it does feel like an album and not a random selection of tracks thrown together, don’t let what is said about something thrown together in a rush by Chris on that Bandcamp page fool you – this is very much a considered and well built album. This is very much an album that allows you to properly breathe – “Don’t confuse “breathe” with “breath” (the noun). “Breath” (rhymes with death) is the air itself; “breathe” (rhymes with seethe) is what you do”. I like the very considered crafted art of Chris Irregardless, it invites intrigue, speculation, it feels friendly, alive, it feels precise. It is relaxing, not in that Clichéd way, not in that trite or hackneyed expressionless way, thankfully we are not in some floatation tank situation here, this is far too good for any of that nonsense and right now, late on a Sunday night, it does all feel a mere apple away, Pondcore indeed. Another fine Chris Irregardless release waiting for you to slowly explore and go with… (sw)
And while we’re here, a bit more Violeta García & Hora Lunga and we never did get around to reviewing that album they made last year did we. We did feature tracks from it and mention it a few times and time flew by and this video sat on a page that was started and never finished and well that album they made together, I’ll Wait For You In The Car Park was released back on 25th April last year, find more details under the video or on Bandcamp and well we did feature quite a bit of it last year. It is impossible to keep up, so much good music around….
The full album…
The album, I’ll Wait For You In The Car Park, released back in April last year, find more details under the video or on Bandcamp
THE ORGAN 