Albums by this artist

Field Recordings From The Cook County Water Table (1999)

Brokeback

Field Recordings From The Cook County Water Table

---

» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

Brokeback Field Recordings From The Cook County Water Table Thrill Jockey, 1999 RiYL: Loren MazzaCane Connors, Gastr Del Sol, Ry Cooder

Solo albums and side projects have taken on new significance amid Chicago's thriving new music scene. Where else could a guy like Bundy K. Brown make important contributions to countless Chicago-based records and bands (especially the first Tortoise album and 1996's Directions In Music release) and still remain almost completely anonymous? Sure, it's questionable whether the world really needs a solo album from every member of Tortoise, but the simple fact is that these guys are great musicians with a seemingly ceaseless creative urge.

Of course, that doesn't always translate to music that bears urgent listening. But on Field Recordings From The Cook County Water Table, the debut by Tortoise's Doug McCombs, the mild-mannered bassist (operating under the name Brokeback) has created a record that has little in common with the more structured approach of his bread-and-butter band. Naturally, it wouldn't be a Chicago-based LP without some notable guest apperances, and Field Recordings has a ton: Tortoise homies John McEntire and Johnny Herndon both show up (McEntire engineered the recording), as do cornetist Rob Mazurek and even Stereolab's Mary Hansen. But even with all of his buddies around, McCombs doesn't let his ideas get cluttered or allow the album to lapse into a needless Tortoise-rehash.

Actually, a number of songs here are about as abstract as anything Tortoise has ever done, while others indulge in a loose-limbed groove that the band's TNT album avoided. The record has a very sparse feel, but it's not cold (a testament to McEntire's skill as an engineer). On the glacially unfolding "The Wilson Ave. Bridge At The Chicago River, 1953," McCombs introduces a friendly, low-toned rhythm and then adds a higher-register solo on top, moving forward only with the add of some simple shakers.

On first listen, the solemn melody of "We Let The 'S' Hang In The Air" goes nowhere. But a headphone-aided tour reveals a slow ascent of full bass tone and the kind of artificial "skipping" that threw listeners for a loop on "Djed," the epic first track on Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die.

Tortoise fans will devour the head-nodding "The Field Code" and the final four minutes of "The Wilson Ave. Bridge At The Chicago River, 1953," two classic swatches of bottom-heavy bliss. "A Blueprint" serves as the more sprightly relative to Millions' "Along The Banks Of Rivers," featuring husky bass accompaniment from Noel Kupersmith and McEntire on triangle (after playing it on Sam Prekop's solo record earlier this year, McEntire must be the only guy to "guest" with that particular instrument on two records within the span of six months).

"Returns To The Orange Grove" and "The Flat Curving" go in a different direction, resembling the skeletal playing style of guitarist Loren MazzaCane Connors. For the Pell Mell-ish "Seiche 2," the album's most "rock" track, McEntire steps behind the drum kit to provide a fine strut underneath McCombs' slinkily cool melody.

Field Recordings has more than enough interesting material to make it appealing for listeners other than crusty Chicago scene trainspotters, its simple methods a welcome contrast to the thick studio polish of TNT.

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"