B Fleischmann is a composer who utilizes modern technologies to fashion a
sound very much rooted in
the past. Dim rustles and skipping electronic tones lay a foundation atop
which effulgent, swelling feedback
and the occasional keyboard tone cluster layer long, plangent melodies,
often warm
and tinged with nostalgia.
After venturing out to slightly more abstract realms with the double album
Welcome Tourist,
Fleischmann returns on The Humbucking Coil to more simple, song-oriented territories, helped by
groovebox rhythms,
wisps of looped feedback, and tinkling acoustic instrumentation. Of note is
the guitar, whose
repetitive, minor-key chord progressions play a prominent role in shaping
many of the album's
forlorn songs. In particular, the guitar motif winding through the
texturally rich, chugging beat
of "Gain" endows the piece with a reedy, reflective aura — which, when
accentuated by the deep, slightly
fragile voice of Christof Kurzmann, is quite captivating. Other compositions
such as "Composure" and
"From To" similarly use hip-hop inspired beats, single-note trumpet smears,
and an almost jazzy
spaciousness, establishing a pattern right away, and then tweaking it slightly
as the minutes pass.
That being said, the tracks fail to hang together in a convincing way — often
giving the impression that
they were more or less strung together on a whim, and that the order could
just as well have been
otherwise. Rarely do songs build on or even shift markedly from the momentum
of prior works. The
same can also be said of the album's moods — rather than a fluid
progression of events,
these songs are recurring dreams where the setting may change slightly,
but the events remain
very much the same. The problem is not so much that Fleischmann fails
to create a convincing structure, but that he has grown so adept in building
one that it ensnares all of his attention, leaving him little will to venture
elsewhere.
|
