Directions In Music
Directions In Music
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NATN Recommended
Directions In Music
Directions In Music
Thrill Jockey, 1996
RiYL: Tortoise’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die, Labradford's Labradford, Aerial M |
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.
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 brilliant in the near future.
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?"