Friday, May 04, 2007
walrus machine
alright, so due to preparing for a multi-state relocation and the energy-sucking process that goes along with packing, planning, anxiety, etc., i've been pretty goddamned lazy. i will continue to be lazy (might even be busy!) for the next two months while i get re-situated. some weeks probably won't be as slow as others, but i make no promises. regardless, a few folks sent me some discs (and a record!) this week that i'm feeling marginally up to reviewing.
i'm also not taking any more requests for review submissions until mid-june, especially unsolicited ones! i'm not big on forwarding my address in a timely manner. if you send me something without contacting me first, it'll probably get sent back to you. or stolen. i appreciate the love though.
speaking of which, debacle was kind enough to send me an unexpected package, included along with this cd was another copy of the ivory lid & wesley borden split. perhaps ironically so, seeing as how i wasn't feeling it the first time around.
the autochthonous worlds of
[2007, debacle]
auto..ch..chet...autock.. ahh, i give up. this rival to the welsh language in terms of enunciation degree of difficulty means "originating from the place where found". right, so indigenous then. i love unnecessary words, or should i say superfluous ones. walrus machine can either be a two or three person effort. this particular album showcases them as the duo of james mclallen on alto saxophone and lyle lordkenaga on percussion. the three-piece ensemble has the core expanding to accommodate trombonist steve. i think they're seattle-based, but their myspace has them being from the "outskirts of bleak village". for some reason, i strongly doubt such a place exists, at least not literally. very m. night shamalaynesque.
with this now being the fourth disc i've gotten to check out from debacle, i'm digging how the emerald city debacle series is shaping up. the genres have all been nicely varied and the quality of musicians has been outstanding (for the most part), despite their overall obscurity. even truer for those of us outside of seattle. debacle's also got some niceness lined up with an upcoming chaw mank disc, which features a member a piece from mouthus and sightings.
for a drums and sax duo there's quite a bit to like about these guys. while walrus machine could easily throw listenability out the window and blast and pummel their way through these thirty-seven minutes, they've instead crafted something as engaging as it is chaotic. it seems to me that they take more of a throwback approach to their music, instead of opting for the 'free noise' approach of some of their peers. even when james is at his most blaring, his playing style is invigorating, not grating. lyle's drum work is outstanding thoughout, too, especially on the opener barbaro. the second track, memory pain, sees mclallen shifting back and forth between lucidity and cohesiveness. at his most structured, he's evoking for me fred anderson, and that's fantastic. the nearly fifteen minute long (nonsensically titled) burning circus of ice at the end of the world is the album's centerpiece and its most triumphant work. primarily slow and sparse, sometimes to the point of being nearly inaudible with just faint squeaks being released from james' sax. at other points, walrus machine threaten to kick out the jams, only to quietly withdraw. that'll take us to around the ten minute mark where they finally stop teasing us and it's caution be damned for a rousing freak-out that has enough repetiti
on going for it so as to still be musically redeeming, to the caffeinated set. truly, a rad disc from walrus machine. not sure what this'd be like with a big ass trombone thrown into the mix, but for what they're giving us on worlds of, they're getting a firm recommendation from me.
i do wish the pretentious review of the band was left off of the back cover though, but that's a small gripe. maybe you like "...rhythmic structures are the magnetic field keeping the slippery atoms from drifting into nothing nebulae"... but c'mon, who wrote this, stephen hawking? gah. okay, i'm done being snobby. check out these guys, seriously.
yay, i wrote a review.
Barbaro
i'm also not taking any more requests for review submissions until mid-june, especially unsolicited ones! i'm not big on forwarding my address in a timely manner. if you send me something without contacting me first, it'll probably get sent back to you. or stolen. i appreciate the love though.
speaking of which, debacle was kind enough to send me an unexpected package, included along with this cd was another copy of the ivory lid & wesley borden split. perhaps ironically so, seeing as how i wasn't feeling it the first time around.
the autochthonous worlds of
[2007, debacle]
auto..ch..chet...autock.. ahh, i give up. this rival to the welsh language in terms of enunciation degree of difficulty means "originating from the place where found". right, so indigenous then. i love unnecessary words, or should i say superfluous ones. walrus machine can either be a two or three person effort. this particular album showcases them as the duo of james mclallen on alto saxophone and lyle lordkenaga on percussion. the three-piece ensemble has the core expanding to accommodate trombonist steve. i think they're seattle-based, but their myspace has them being from the "outskirts of bleak village". for some reason, i strongly doubt such a place exists, at least not literally. very m. night shamalaynesque.
with this now being the fourth disc i've gotten to check out from debacle, i'm digging how the emerald city debacle series is shaping up. the genres have all been nicely varied and the quality of musicians has been outstanding (for the most part), despite their overall obscurity. even truer for those of us outside of seattle. debacle's also got some niceness lined up with an upcoming chaw mank disc, which features a member a piece from mouthus and sightings.for a drums and sax duo there's quite a bit to like about these guys. while walrus machine could easily throw listenability out the window and blast and pummel their way through these thirty-seven minutes, they've instead crafted something as engaging as it is chaotic. it seems to me that they take more of a throwback approach to their music, instead of opting for the 'free noise' approach of some of their peers. even when james is at his most blaring, his playing style is invigorating, not grating. lyle's drum work is outstanding thoughout, too, especially on the opener barbaro. the second track, memory pain, sees mclallen shifting back and forth between lucidity and cohesiveness. at his most structured, he's evoking for me fred anderson, and that's fantastic. the nearly fifteen minute long (nonsensically titled) burning circus of ice at the end of the world is the album's centerpiece and its most triumphant work. primarily slow and sparse, sometimes to the point of being nearly inaudible with just faint squeaks being released from james' sax. at other points, walrus machine threaten to kick out the jams, only to quietly withdraw. that'll take us to around the ten minute mark where they finally stop teasing us and it's caution be damned for a rousing freak-out that has enough repetiti
on going for it so as to still be musically redeeming, to the caffeinated set. truly, a rad disc from walrus machine. not sure what this'd be like with a big ass trombone thrown into the mix, but for what they're giving us on worlds of, they're getting a firm recommendation from me.i do wish the pretentious review of the band was left off of the back cover though, but that's a small gripe. maybe you like "...rhythmic structures are the magnetic field keeping the slippery atoms from drifting into nothing nebulae"... but c'mon, who wrote this, stephen hawking? gah. okay, i'm done being snobby. check out these guys, seriously.
yay, i wrote a review.
Barbaro
