BRIAN JAMES GRIFFITH “Inner Work” C33 (Histamine Tapes)

With “Inner Work”, Brian James Griffith (ex-Greyghost, & current collaborator in Electric Sound Bath, L’Éternèbre, Screaming Claws Collective, etc) has sound-painted his most vibrant, consonant, and evocative offering to date; and make no mistake, his back-catalogue is s-t-a-c-k-e-d with some seriously heavy-hitting ambient releases!

Here, he has traded in that somber mood-tint/focus he’s masterfully crafted so many previous dronescapes with in favor of sculpting an airier, more outward connecting, celebratory new age vibe; all this while still spiking his pieces with the gripping field recordings and noisy accents that set his work apart from so many other stellar NA albums of past decades. Visually, it’s hard for the mind not to drift to the coniferous edge of some high-altitude, near-frozen, fresh water lake at dawn, taking in flora and fauna’s excitement of another set of sun rays coming to bathe them into bliss.

It’s always great to see an artist you’ve loved take a sharp, creative turn, only to see that they’ve likely been sitting on a crystal-mine you’d not yet dreamt of!

https://histaminetapes.bandcamp.com/album/inner-work-ht012

and/or

http://briangriffithmusic.com/

— Jacob An Kittenplan

GREYGHOST “Meditations on Mindfulness” C47 (Constellation Tatsu)

        

Four tracks, with three on side A.

The first track, ‘Intro to Breathwork’, has me processing a not quite peaceful collage. Subtle, thin. sharpie’d lines of violence faintly trace curling, outer shapes; here, paramedics are loading a strapped-down-me into the back of an ambulance on some rainy morning, ambient blips and squeaks cancelled out by focused, staggered breathing; all the while, passing traffic and conversation is translated into deep, peaceful, bassy drones.

In comes ‘Deep Water, Lemurian Tides’. Subtle waves of tape hiss beg for attention and then assume insignificance, whilst, juuuust behind, e-bow(?)’d bass guitar swells wash in and out, carrying accompanying overtones and feedback, all of which, once memorized, make, not only good, solid sense, but an outright ‘fuck-the-facts-this-is-my-divine-affinity” document; a non-verbal ontological refinement of some alternate self, in real time. Moods of ancient experiences are hinted at; continual, minimal shifts tease attention to juuuuust pay a juuuuust bit more a-tttttention… until the ten minute mark reminds us how we’re actually only receiving instrumental transmissions and not earnest, captured glacial moan-grunts.

‘march towards time’ …what better way to sum up neil young’s favorite fascination than to lead an arrhythmic bass-pulse throughout what it might sound like if a buncha weirdos chugged along through simple riffs at the bottom of a hundred-level-deep stairwell…with their friends from ‘the band’…and then added more reverb than any beluga whale has ever known.  Maybe I’m sentimental here? Read into me? Halfway through this track, the movement gets outright interpretive-danceable, with cymbal swells, synth-twang, and the ever-pervasive highway tthhrruumm that maybe just might be an unhealthy heartbeat.

………

‘Temple of the Clouds’

This last long track, taking up all of side b, is simple. Get down to forgetting. The tape hiss, by this point, excites and juxtaposes those previous bass hymnals on le prior side. I can’t help but envision a half-timed clip of ‘Cheers’, where everyone syncs into an eyes-closed-slow-nod-in-understanding; with some monolithic requisite we’re all in no hurry to, but are, nevertheless, still struggling to adapt to.

http://www.ctatsu.com/portfolio/meditations-on-mindfulness/

http://briangriffithmusic.com/

- - Jacob An Kittenplan

Greyghost / TALsounds (Hausu Mountain)

Here we have a split tape from Hausu Mountain, a label ran by Doug Kaplan of Chicago. They released a stellar tape by Moth Cock we spotlighted a few months back, so I was looking forward to hearing more from the label. This particular split is apart of their mungen series, which features solo sessions recorded live with no overdubs. The tape starts off with TALsounds, Natalie Chami of Chicago. She uses synths and effects to make slow moving swells that stay at a somber pulse. Her side is overall stagnant but ends with some thick thumps and sweet leading loops. On side B we have Greyghost, Brian Griffith of LA. It begins with pitched radio frequencies but eventually fades into a hazy non moving bass loop peice. Both sides hit very somber grass lying cloud watching moods. If you're looking for that, check this out! 

http://mugenseries.bandcamp.com/album/mugen-volume-2-talsounds-greyghost

http://hausumountain.com/?page_id=9

-- Mark Johnson