Monday, September 04, 2006
sam hamilton
the borders of the garden paths are overgrown
[2006, transient]
despite a low-to-no profile outside new zealand, aucklanders most likely know (and fear) sam's manic desire to assimilate himself entirely into the local scene. chances are if you've passed through the city limits he's invited and introduced you, played on your bill, sold your records and plied you with alcohol; last i noticed he'd even wormed his way into the film festival. summing up someone who insists on being everything everywhere is a fucking headache. but regardless, onward with the review...
despite the empire he's slowly building himself, the best of his numerous musical pies thrive on restraint and modest ambition. recently enough hamilton's rustic projector-powered hum'n'wail managed to upstage the much-vaunted campbell kneale, who descended from the heavens only to unleash a one-riff borefest, exhausting even the most determined head-banging hipster. riff killed for about 6 minutes in a 20 minute set. next time round i tried to get my hands on something similar of hamilton's, but despite wild gesticulating and vague musical descriptors i ended up with this, his latest on ben spiers' transient label.
not that i'm entirely crushed and disappointed, but it has more of a glitchy electronic feel than i'd usually go for. opener metal fig is the highlight, being a gothic assemblage of guitar, electronics and piano bandying about only a loose and noncommital structure; it reminds me a little of dean roberts more recent work, but without even the allegiance to pop. why these five minutes aren't expanded at the expense of the meandering do nothing garden, which occupies most of the disc, is beyond me. it's an innocous little electronic bubbler which is happy enough to tread circles, but doesn't really engage on more than a superficial level; a short field recording rounding off the disc is the only thing keeping proceedings from winding down on an abitrary note. metal fig'll likely feature in the greatest hits, but for now the definitive sam hamilton home experience remains elusive.
metal fig
[2006, transient]
despite a low-to-no profile outside new zealand, aucklanders most likely know (and fear) sam's manic desire to assimilate himself entirely into the local scene. chances are if you've passed through the city limits he's invited and introduced you, played on your bill, sold your records and plied you with alcohol; last i noticed he'd even wormed his way into the film festival. summing up someone who insists on being everything everywhere is a fucking headache. but regardless, onward with the review...
despite the empire he's slowly building himself, the best of his numerous musical pies thrive on restraint and modest ambition. recently enough hamilton's rustic projector-powered hum'n'wail managed to upstage the much-vaunted campbell kneale, who descended from the heavens only to unleash a one-riff borefest, exhausting even the most determined head-banging hipster. riff killed for about 6 minutes in a 20 minute set. next time round i tried to get my hands on something similar of hamilton's, but despite wild gesticulating and vague musical descriptors i ended up with this, his latest on ben spiers' transient label.not that i'm entirely crushed and disappointed, but it has more of a glitchy electronic feel than i'd usually go for. opener metal fig is the highlight, being a gothic assemblage of guitar, electronics and piano bandying about only a loose and noncommital structure; it reminds me a little of dean roberts more recent work, but without even the allegiance to pop. why these five minutes aren't expanded at the expense of the meandering do nothing garden, which occupies most of the disc, is beyond me. it's an innocous little electronic bubbler which is happy enough to tread circles, but doesn't really engage on more than a superficial level; a short field recording rounding off the disc is the only thing keeping proceedings from winding down on an abitrary note. metal fig'll likely feature in the greatest hits, but for now the definitive sam hamilton home experience remains elusive.
metal fig
