The debut solo release by Need Windham, founder of concrete agit-prop duo Presocratics (ex-Table of the Elements). A subtle new tape work constructed solely from the critically hated and rejected parts of Presocratics compositions, employment patterns places itself far from the reserved monochrome of its contemporaries, distinguished, with a sly nod to Morton Feldman, through terse probing of tonal degree and compositional identity. Need Windham's fluid pop sensibility glares through the work's structure; indeed, the piece positively emotes—frustration, joy, shame—a true political and personal agenda emerges in abstract.
"[employment patterns] finds its sources in a curious combination of short-wave radio, guitar and piano, the effect being the feeling of someone slowly moving the dial on a vintage radio, finding static here and reception there, but never really settling on anything easily perceptible."
"If Presocratics held pop organization in a stranglehold with free associative noise, tape manipulation and pure politics, Need Windham's solo compositions apply a much more elusive, nonfigurative approach. Implied sonics, implied statements; an antagonistic and simply beautiful space opens in which dialogue is distilled to its most effective and direct elements."
