Dustin Wong
certainly isn't the first guitarist to use delays and/or loopers to layer guitar parts on top of each other, but he has managed to develop a very personal sound doing it. He uses some of the arpeggiated figures he used in
Ponytail
but the layering leads to some complex and fascinating interactions as new rhythms and melodies are created from the mixed parts. There are times when the interlocking guitar parts are reminiscent of
Discipline
-era
King Crimson
.
Wong
is a highly rhythmic player and rhythm plays a key role. There's almost nothing in the way of traditional guitar soloing or accompaniment on the album. Instead,
builds his little rhythmic fragments into songlike forms. It's hypnotic but definitely not ambient. He's got a good sense of when to move the song forward and when to end it and he's not afraid to give the delay knobs a quick midsong twist to change the pattern completely. Bass and drums are added on a couple tracks, and the last track has a bit of vocalizing (that almost sounds more like a guitar part), but it's mostly just guitar and devices. While it doesn't sound at all the same, fans of
Robert Fripp
's Frippertronics (
Let the Power Fall
) or
Henry Kaiser
's guitar-with-delay work (
It's a Wonderful Life
,
Where Endless Meets Disappearing
) should really enjoy this. ~ Sean Westergaard