As one witnesses the disturbed anxiety of many people looking for significances and connections that will never, ever be clear in their minds in spite of fleeting illusions, it’s always beneficial to observe a musician privileging the essentials. Percussionist Tim Feeney, who’s used to travel across genres and settings, did exactly that in Burrow: namely, focusing on the basics of rhythm, vibration and sound propagation to explore how our system conforms to standards exclusive of the logorrheic disrespect typically associated to the desperate need of “indoctrinating” in order to boost the ego.
It is indeed a matter of deep listening, as threadbare as this locution has by now become. Over 57+ minutes subdivided into a pair of tracks, Feeney employs disparate varieties of percussive source (they’re listed in the Bandcamp page linked above) to initiate an incisive combination of uninterrupted beats and shifting speeds, as to remind anybody tuned in that we’re not sequencers but individuals subjected to the perfection of the imperfection. The entrancing qualities of the resulting music are enhanced by a masterful control of the timbral nuances, in turn aided by an equalization that glorifies the unadulterated constituents of a given instrument’s reverberation.
We’re tempted to compare this work to some of Jon Mueller’s (and, extending the concept, Charlemagne Palestine’s). Same sense for the listener of getting lost inside the realms of a massive resonance, same hands-on approach by the composer to reach a domain where the self gets entirely repudiated, the acoustic current ultimately drawing an emitter/receiver connecting line whose directness is fundamental. Alan Jones’ trademark high-quality mastering ensures that not a single detail escapes from our focus. Overall, a most compelling release to be played loud and often.
MASSIMO RICCI. TOUCHING EXTREMES. 