Monday, October 4, 2010

A BRIEF ENCOUNTER: JAZZFINGER

Well,  this certainly isn't jazz,  as its contours suggest sounds collected from some dirty alley that have congealed into odd shapes with the help of bodily fluids and electricity.  I'm not even sure what kind of "music" this is,  except to say that its degraded urban gestures (see UGLY FOR A LIVING) have given way to a kind of rural tempest that has swapped rusted metal for clay and an Assembly of Cardinals for dead birds.  The drones have become warmer and even,  dare I say inviting?  Keep in mind that they are a very different proposition live,  as I found out on the last night of No Fun Festival 2009 in Williamsburg,  Brooklyn.  Here were individuals crouched on the floor,  indifferent to the audience,  creating massively monotonous drones that swept me right into the lobby to buy merchandise from Keith Fullerton Whitman (whose previous set as the Conrad Schnitzler Con-Cert was wonderful).  I thought they were terrible,  but strangely felt the need to search out a few of their recordings.  AUTUMN ENGINES seems delicate in comparison to their live performance,  a combination of lo-fi loops,  malfunctioning electrical devices, feedback,  and perhaps a real (read: guitar, bass, clarinet) instrument or two.  The result is a series of nightmare lullabies,  perfect for the chill of a Fall night.  One of the tracks sums it up perfectly as "Dreams Cast Shadows".

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