Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Anduin + Jasper, TX


The Bending of Light (05.09, SMTG Limited)

Byline: Steamboat Springs, Light breaks over valley floor.

For: Aidan Baker, Wylde Wyzyrdz, The Fun Years

Most, if not all, music that I internalize is heavily tied to time and location. Most of them involve driving in a car in some desolate location, Sigur Ros: Wyoming. White Rainbow: Nevada. The Antlers: Central Washington. Andiun + Jasper TX: Eastern Colorado. Driving over Rabbit Ears pass in Colorado I really felt like I understood what this album was trying to communicate. For a little background, Jasper TX is my go-to for ambient drone comas that I love to fall into with the assistance of super-nice headphones. Jasper TX already has put out one of my favorite albums this year, Singing Stones, and this incredibly prolific Swede has just grabbed another spot. Along with VA luminary, Andiun, this tag-team floorcore duo create sonic noise palates that structure melodies out of barely controlled noise. The Bending of Light completely destroys the idea that musicians are controllers of sound, manipulating and sequencing tones in order to create something completely the authors' own. Andiun and Jasper TX's musical ideas and aspirations are buried underneath the sheer weight of noise, and this is completely ok. The Bending of Light minds the tentative grasp we hold on sound and both seem content to simply brighten the corners with subdued, worshipful commentary while the main corpus of unrestrained beauty runs full stop through the speakers. Listening to this album is a exercise in letting go to a selfish sense of melody and basic song structure and an experiment into plunging headfirst into a endless pool of sound. P.S this album is mastered by James Plotkin, the mastermind behind 2008's best metal album by the Pyramids. Highly recommended. 



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