innature
[2006, barge]

innature was the coming out affair for the barge imprint. they didn't just sneak their way into the scene through a hole in the fence, no, they sent out rsvps and gathered quite a few better-known and respected musicians to join their little soirée.

the fun years open up the disc with, actually, a nice piece of music. this is a lot more memorable than anything on life-sized psychoses. all the earmarks of that particular effort are here, though; the record crackles, the repetition, but i like this more. kudos. the next two songs, unfortunately, lose the momentum that tfy established, for me anyway. the kallikak family's affected vocals, guitar and electronics is skippable. stay high by the bird show, ironically, reminds me of a more sober version of the animal collective. too bad, since i'd have to say that it's the drugs that make that band at least interesting. those two, popular amongst people who've uttered the term new weird america in all seriousness, are interesting inclusions seeing as how the rest of the disc is a lot more experimental in nature. polmo polpo offers up a lovely piece of spaced out guitar with farewell to the flyer. tim hecker's, tried and true, warm swirling atmospheric electronics on dungeoneering won't disappoint his rather large fanbase. loren connors' outside my window is a humanistic three minutes of acoustic guitar. then, with little haste, it's back to the electric guitar and a floor filled with effects pedals for animal hospital (kevin micka of the common cold) and his towering late summertime. it's part minimal delayed drone, part field recording and part slow deliberate riffing, with authority! the finnish circle's near twelve minute no battle, no fire is music to perform a human sacrifice by. there's some tribal sounding percussion in the back, various other little noises, water sounds and metal clanging also thrown in. the vocal wails and stern grumblings keep the sound here firmly cemented in sinisterland. the repetitious stringed instrumentation that'll eventually join in about midway through is a welcomed addition. the press notes that came with this disc pretty much had this to say about circle "for fans of nurse with wound and current 93". my press notes would say "they could've scored the film the serpent and the rainbow with this". providence's geoff mullen takes me back to a place i'd rather be with gold eyes. his affected guitar noodling / noise making accompanied by some jingling chimes provides the album's best track, in my opinion. isis guitarist mike gallagher, here as mgr (better in abbreviated form since the full name is mustard gas & roses. bad, bad name), sounds very un-isis-like with the tense neither here nor there. mike's serving up multiple layers of electric guitar with only some resonance to provide any backing support. sparse as hell, but i like it. mgr ups the pace quite a bit towards the end as he'll start playing some actual riffs, added as a third guitar layer, nicely offsetting the slower chord work that he's putting down. shortly thereafter, a layer of dominating drone and sputtering electronics will pop up only to swallow the track whole. this is my second favorite.

innature's a solid compilation with some very nice moments. for the most part barge recordings does a good job of adhering to a particular theme. which would appear to be guitar experimentation, something that i'm certainly fond of. i do feel like they could've easily left off kallikak family and the bird show since both of those artists' songs stick out like sore thumbs. without them, this would be something that i'm more apt to throw on and listen to in its entirety. as it currently stands, i'll just pick and choose what i want to hear.

Loren Connors - Outside My Window