Seattle Washington’s droopy emo-rock was so infectious in its
slouching off of talent and churning of the punk three chord chorus
into introspective koans for the college-set that it took
indie-circuits over in the 90s. These days the monsters of emoting play
the festival circuit attracting near jam band level followings. Con-currently in Europe (where the young’ns prefer laptops to guitar
strings) a new music reigned where house’s 4/4 formula was churned into
a thought provoking music that hides its more monotonous rhythms
and let the phantom of music play over liminal beats. Both continents
musical exports emphasize an introspective sophistication that
unfortunately is easily imitated. Neither emo or tech go to any lengths
to make their structures only attainable by the virtuosity of its musicians.
Here one of Seattle’s earliest proponents of the minimal sound laces typical
Kompakt formulas with a musical sense informed (and frequently
sampling) jazz. “Women In Large Coats,” starts Silver Cities (Steven’s
second release under the Bruno alias) with dissonant piano chords
recalling moments of Cecil Taylor’s first abstractions. All of this
might be off-setting were it not for Bruno’s remarkable ability to turn
dissonance into a kind of shell game in which he deftly switches the
avant-garde and a damn fine backdrop of electro warble and quirky
beats. Track’s so good even Akufen is dropping it. “Cordo-Va,” doesn’t
accomplish everything the opener does, but again, good
glitches, and a busy series of bumps and scratches damage it enough to
keep you on your feet. Later tracks invest in a Prince-like sensibility
possibly inspired by Matthew Dear’s Dog Days. Unfortunately the fully
fledged vocals don’t quite work here, certainly not as effectively as
Jan Jelinek’s distortion of his own voice on La Nouvelle Pauvreté or
Twerk’s mad-cap ability to turn friends and foes into accidental
vocalists.
“Vieja A La Luna,” however makes up for this spraying
deadpan latin announcements liberally but not excessively. “Kuche,”
again proves good on the vocal formula and obviously is enamored with
electro-funk occasionally dropping palsley park bass before a break
down that gives the whole thing more substance. “Read Me,” punctures into
a little ambience similar to Thomas Jirku, it’s a lifting moment that
suddenly drops back down into dance floor elegance. “Pedestrain Plan,”
is the completely left-field track and only serves as a refresher
before “Listen Pil” forgoes any dance-floor illusions for a pure
wallop of clicks, scrapes, potentially malfunctioning devices, snips of
field recordings, and everything that usually comes with these tracks
only done in a slightly more controlled way. One feels it’s a
composition and quite good at holding your attention rather than
simply an experiment in micro-sound. “No Love,” further takes the
Thomas Jirku vibe a little higher, em:t style ambience and all the
kompaktisms you can handle, end out what in reflection is 9 tracks all
stylistically arranged to create a rally in which one doesn’t win by
speed but by ideas.
Silver Cities is out now on Orac Records.
