Windsor For The Derby
Minnie Greutzfeldt
»
Windsor For The Derby
Minnie Greutzfeldt
Trance Syndicate, 1997
RiYL: Labradford, Stars Of The Lid’s The Ballasted Orchestra, Brian Eno’s Music for Airports |
That said, new music (read: post-rock) is becoming less about the actual notes that are played but about how these notes are transformed through repetition, effects and studio manipulation. One of the new breeds of bands advocating such a modus operandi is Windsor For The Derby, a quartet that captivates the listener with sound and imagery rather than just music.
Don't get the wrong idea. Minnie Greutzfeldt employs the standard guitar-bass-drums lineup. But these seven compositions pull back the curtain on the mysterious realm that is post-rock, in effect soundtracking the very thoughts that have no verbal precedent. Nebulous song titles and liner notes devoid of text make it clear that interpreting this music is a task for the listener, not the composer. Thus, Minnie could be viewed as the internal sheet music for a hallucinogenic day in the life.
And so the day begins. "Fat Angel, Skinny Ghost" switches our brains on, repeating light guitar chords like a test pattern. "Stasis" proceeds like so many gentle kisses, and we feel as aware of our surroundings as we've ever been. But "No Techno w/Drums" spins reality on its side, repeating reverb-soaked guitar lines over alien bass and analog keyboard transmissions.
Constant snare drum snaps twirl our confused selves in any direction but the right one until "When I See Scissors" raises the shade on a gorgeous sunscape of soothing guitar melodies. The clear, double-guitar warmth of "Useless Arm" rushes us down a faintly-lit corridor of memories, providing fleeting glances of loves both past and present. By the 1:30 mark, things have turned dissonant and dark, only to "reconcile" by steadily coming to a crescendo filled with eternally sad riffs.
We're dreaming of the whole affair during the hypnotic "Skimming+," as drums fade into the background like a train on a rainy night. Enveloped in ambient noise, we return to the far-off vistas that mirror the more mundane landmarks of wakeful existence. Minnie is the accompaniment to the surreal inner workings of the human unconscious.
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?"