What exactly is so freaky about drone music? When Terry Riley met La Monte Young and experienced his “Theater of Eternal Music,” he deemed Young “the freakiest guy [he] had ever met.” Riley then promptly wrote his first “minimalist” piece, the trailblazingly repetitive string trio. And when experimental heavyweights like Steve Reich and Pauline Oliveros performed Riley’s “In C” four years later, a new age of slow-process minimalism had undoubtedly arrived.
Four decades and just a few Riley/Reich enthusiasts later comes Ecstatic Sunshine. The Baltimore trio was founded several years ago and has slowly morphed into a diligent continuation of the Riley school bent around Branca’s guitar fetishism. Consequently, WAY is a sonorous 30 minutes of guitar melody and noise, and like any contoured minimalist record, seems to leave before it even arrives.
WAY is a recording of three men who’ve seemingly thought long and hard about what they wanted to sound like on this album. But what is sorrowfully lacking is the stark freakishness found in the transparent works of Young, Riley, or even Reich. At best, WAY is a study in warm guitar distortion, hesitating and pivoting over vaguely repeated riffs in an elaboration of the early masters’ stunning motifs. And indeed, this would have been mind blowing in the ’60s, but in an age of digital delay and 30 loop playback capabilities, I hope for something to push the limits of technology.
WAY was patched together last year between band members’ trips and tours, and this really shows; interesting, un-linked ideas are often lost under a perpetual wash of sound. This album will please a lot of people looking for a more “punk” twist on past minimalism, but while that’s great, my ears are on a search for something fresher.
1. B
2. Herrons
3. Perrier
More about: Ecstatic Sunshine
