|
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.
"Here Windham goes solo with
miniature fragments of sound strewn across lengthy pauses
like some kind of soundscape fallout. Small sonic gestures
crop up like digital thought-bubbles. Sometimes it plays
with barely audible events tickling the perception threshold;
other moments in the five unnamed tracks open unexpectedly
onto glowing vistas of organ chords, reverberating low end
drones, or oozing synthetic sound washes. Lucid and elusive
in equal measures."
- The
Wire
"[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."
- John Knight,
Flagpole Magazine
"It's quite a mysterious piece
of work... with a sly elision of tension/release and
presence/absence...
(click
for full review)
- Nirav Soni,
The
Squid's Ear
"...minimal sounds and subtle drones...
discreet and finely structured."
- Blow
Up
"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."
- Popstocker
|
