Holykindof – Stay / Sea (Eilean
Rec, 2014)
A musical love
letter from BJ Nilsen to Gavin Bryars, Holykindof's "Stay / Sea"
touches base with music concrete – several whooshing reversed vinyl
noises pervade the atmosphere; lo-fi drone – the entire three
pieces encumber around a type of linear erosion; and mood aligned
with lysergic pensiveness. Running to 40 minutes, the pace never
feels laboured or forced toward a gear-shift. Yes, the atmosphere is
rickety, thanks to the noisy-scratchy nature of the sound sourcing,
but in general it's in third lever and never breaks a sweat, and
doesn't cause you to perspirate.
The scratching is
to an un-attuned ear disconcerting over time, whereby you need to
have listened to enough other musics before listening to bypass its
irregularity. It subsumes the languid cello playing stylishly and
gives a welcome change to the landscape of otherwise 'regular' sound.
In an age of wanton experimentation, where musicians continually
gambit for a break from the ordinary, "Stay / Sea" is not
oxymoronic of its title, being strong and steadfast like the waves of
an estuary. It is rooted in traditional orthodoxy of instrumentation,
yet contains an alien edge. This is due to its potent fixation
quality of repeating chords. It is needed, in compositions that rely
on the wealth of sublimative, subconscious mind-shaping harvest that
pulsates from thought to action.
The shorter the
track in this release, the less effective the results. The crop is
always worthwhile, a melancholic cloaking device for the emotions.
That dial alters in resonance every time you hear it. Like Bryars'
"The Sinking Of The Titanic", "Nocturne In S Major"
is ruthless in its intention and paints a sullen, purposeful backdrop
to much-a-do-about-nothing periods. "Stay / Sea" turns in
the covers of sleep like a coastguard watching the blue grass crash.
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