Directions In Music
Bundy K. Brown,
James Warden and Doug Scharin
Thrill
Jockey, 1996
Reviewed by
Jonathan Cohen
It’s revealing that arguably the most compelling album to emerge from
Chicago’s experimental music scene this decade was produced over the course of a
three-day recording session by a band with no name and no song titles.
Directions In Music, created by the collective of Bundy K. Brown (ex-Tortoise),
James Warden and drummer Doug Scharin (Rex, Him, June Of 44), is an eight-track
instrumental album that revels in subtle, organic textures and ear-pleasing melodic
vistas.
Although some of the more abstract material here (“6” begins with ghostly,
far-off tones before diffusing into clean guitar hues) recalls Tortoise’s ambient
moments, it also demonstrates the enormous contributions that Brown made to that band
during his membership. On the other hand, this album has enough emotion and a surprisingly
mainstream feel (on casual listen, the first song could easily be confused with a Freddy
Jones Band tune) to cast aside any notion of going through the post-rock motions.
Brown’s use of the studio as an instrument allows him to gracefully tinker with the
standard guitar/bass/drums format and augment it with mind-expanding noises and overdubs.
The songs themselves never suffer from the lack of vocals, remaining highly catchy despite
the repetition of melodic figures.
“4” is a warm, beautiful swatch of sonic euphoria while “5” offers a
spine-tingling meld of low-key bass and drum lines and major-key guitar strains.
“7” would fit nicely on Tortoise’s first album with its emphasis on low-end
theory.
The closer, a lovely finger-picked acoustic guitar solo, is the precedent for the guitar
instrumental record Brown released in 1998 with Tortoise’s Doug McCombs, Rex’s
Curtis Harvey and Come’s Chris Brokaw under the name Pullman, Turnstyles and
Junkpiles.
The collective effect of this smile-inducing effort is one of renewed faith in the ability
of Chicago’s avant-garde groups to move beyond the stereotypes applied to the
“post-rock” genre (as Tortoise did on its wildly eclectic 1998 album TNT).
And although it appears Directions In Music was a one-time happening, one can only
hope that Brown will attempt a project this ambitious in the near future.
