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Alphabet 1968
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Alphabet 1968
Current price: $32.99
Barnes and Noble
Alphabet 1968
Current price: $32.99
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Given the MC5-referencing band name one would be forgiven for expecting brash soul/rock with a revolutionary aesthetic -- no less so than the album title, suggestive as it is of the year of the French student uprising and other protest movements around the globe. Yet the softly rising rumble of feedback and static leading into murky piano that starts
with
suggests calmer if no less moody waters, fitting for an artist, real name
, who has previously appeared with more straightforward drone efforts on friendly labels like Digitalis and runs his own imprint, Dekorder. More than many acts exploring the intersection of minimal electronics, collaged samples and serene feedback zone,
here shows a slightly unexpected source point of sound -- while many acts have recreated the work of
in
, few as yet have done so with his aggressive, relentless yet nearly always drumless rhythms in
. Yet
's ear for that approach -- sometimes openly as with the pulse underpinning
sometimes in terms of suggestion as overlapping patterns of noise assemble and reassemble over the course of a song as on
and the ghostly organ rise and fall of
-- gives
a stronger kick than many of its fellow travelers. Similarly the earliest work of
also finds an echo here, where even buried beats provide an essential driving point just as it did for
's work. Even so, it's not quite enough to give
a sense of his own unique style -- the album is at base an artful, accomplished collage of numerous reference points that any number of similarly minded artists also explore. But it does promise more for the future as
expands his sound to more inclusive, exploratory areas of interest. ~ Ned Raggett