Monday, November 03, 2008

Gates McFadden - You Can See Russia From Here On A Clear Day

Gates McFadden's fullest album to date has improviser/composer Joel Schrauben making a digi-romantic Glenn Branca of himself. But not via an army of guitarists; it's just Joel and a laptop - therein being dozens of delay loops and tones. You Can See Russia... is an exercise in infinite repetition; fitting in that the Palin remark appropriated is just one of a series of infinitely repeated talking points this season - repetition to the point of a loss of meaning. Fortunately for Gates McFadden, the loss of meaning here is not a descent into idiocy but one of recontextualization; where repeated tones and sounds layer upon one another building a veritable Tower of Digital Babel that comes crumbling down when Schrauben (as creator) sees fit. Schrauben achieves a unified, suspensefully ambient statement that gives credence to those who may assert that tension and resolution are overrated concepts.
Get it here.

4 comments:

Chris said...

Speaking of Gates McFadden, have you seen the trailer for the new Star Trek movie? Just to let you know, I leave a lot of random messages on friends blogs. It's just my way of saying, "Hey, I don't know what to say but I wanted to let you know that I read this!" And Gates McFadden is Star Trek reference?

Chris said...

Speaking of Gates McFadden, have you seen the trailer for the new Star Trek movie? Just to let you know, I leave a lot of random messages on friends blogs. It's just my way of saying, "Hey, I don't know what to say but I wanted to let you know that I read this!" And Gates McFadden is Star Trek reference?

J.P.B. said...

Originally a Star Trek reference, yes. Now perhaps more of a persona, one appropriated from the decks of the USS Enterprise. And given a sex change.

eric said...

this one's got serious record-of-the-year potential.