Word: ambiente
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...Think of this as a kind of exorcism—a way to show multiple perspectives of sound and image. Plus there’s the whole idea of ambient cinema. I come out of a tradition of collage—Harry Smith, Marcel Duchamp, Charles Ives, all European/Anglo American traditions, meet stuff like GrandMaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata and the Bomb Squad that produced Public Enemy. Plus I remix old blues records for the show as well. The idea is to apply DJ technique to cinema, but to keep things well chilled...
...missteps occur when the band attempts to stretch a really great three and a half minutes into a six minute mini-epic that lacks forward motion. Bixler and Rodriguez have forgone that problem, not resting on any patterns—other than some near-patience-breaking extended stretches of ambient noise—for too long. The ambience serves as a segue between the music as they sustain one continuous unit, five segments of which make up the track listing, some with their own accompanying subsections...
Still, the long stretches of ambient blips and beeps are an exasperating bump in the road. Even if Bixler and Rodriguez maintain the need to provide transitions between segments, do they really have to be so arduous? The duo has ambition seeping out of their pores; restraining their indulgences would do them much good...
Catch a great show downstairs at the Middle East. An awesome multiple bill presented by The Middle East and MassConcerts promises to make for a really exciting night of music ranging from more traditional performances to increasingly ambient laptop pieces. Tickets...
...course, it’s not perfect. Some tracks’ vocals seem like they might have been stronger after one more take, and if there is one singular quibble with the Smith-less mastering, it may be with the heavy use of ambient noises (epitomized in “Ostriches & Chirping”). But as a coda—by design or not—to a long and fascinating career, From a Basement functions superbly, and it does so in a way that continues to remind us of how much was lost a year...