After recording under countless pseudonyms, labels (including such brilliant names as Cascading Fragments, Turmeric Magnitudes, and Sifting Through Shards), Greg Gorlen has teamed with Lathelight Records for another installment in his expansive series of electronic tape manipulation and noise music. This is kind of a mix of ambient sounds and noise, with drones and bits of manipulated and out of speed tape loops, that sound like a slightly more chaotic and more linear version of William Basinski. The first pressing is gone, though due to an error, there will be a repressing of the tape and 7 inch vinyl presentation, so pick yours up.
In terms of posthumous recordings, Jeff Buckley's legacy has definitely faired a lot better than others. This collection incorporates some unearthed originals and alternate versions, though the bulk here are covers that were performed in the studio. If you've heard the legacy edition of Live at Sin-é or other live albums, you've heard some of these covers before, but if you wanted to see them get a studio treatment, they're here now. I can't say his take on 'Everyday People' was my favorite (not a lot of soulful meaning to squeeze out of "different strokes for different folks", I'm sorry), but I really enjoyed Buckley's interpretations of the Smiths and Bob Dylan's 'Just Like a Woman'.
The strummed guitars, bouncy bass and punk aesthetic are all here, but the songs are just...not. I don't know if the whole idea of a comeback record is really big right now, and they decided to jump on it, but everyone's favorite '80s band disguised as a '90s band did not HAVE to make one. If the songs are there and it comes organically sure, but just making one to make one is unnecessary, which is how it comes across here. It won't do anything to their legacy like the Pixies' or Black Flag comeback records did, but it won't have me throwing their self titled album or Hallowed Ground in the trash to listen to this thing either.
Check back in later for more reviews, and be sure to let me know what records you can't get enough of at the moment.
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