From Kent Williams Sent Sat, Mar 27th 1999, 20:29
From Kent Williams Sent Sat, Mar 27th 1999, 20:29
Windowlicker is another in a series of CDs that are in turns beautiful and frustrating. The 'Windowlicker' track is at it's root a rather nice introspective downtempo track, whose tranquil party is crashed by any number of DSP effects run amok, and consequently refuses to get into get into a groove. It's a tour-de-force for strange sound effects, but for me sets no particular mood except a Spike Jones jokiness. The 'Symbol' track (not really a symbol, but a calculus formula that may or may not mean anything) has a little more funk to it, and spares no expense in the odd-twist-and-turn department. Then comes 'Nannou' which is a completely lovely bit of neo-classicism done with music box samples. There's even a spot where the music stops and you hear a music box being rewound. THIS for me is where Richard James shines -- when he lets his lyrical side take control, and cuts out the musical gurning. These moments seem to come only once per record -- "Polynomial in C," and "Alberto Balsam," come to mind. And the production values of Nannou if anything are more amazing than on the other two tracks. James spends the sort of time building up the samples into a 'real' soundscape, that indicates where his genius is -- he listens deeply to music and sound, and then, by how he reconstructs a new auditory environment, draws the listener into a similarly intense listening experience. The Windowlicker video is, with it's babes-in-richard-james masks a solipsistic fantasy, is hilarious. RDJ and his co-conspirators have made a sort of totem out of his manically grinning face, starting with "I care because you do." It's an ironic twist on the idea of 'faceless techno bastards,' the much vaunted anonymity of the producer, that has always been more of a marketing ploy than a reality. Maybe it's a sign of a baby step towards maturity -- he's gone from the infantile eroticisim of the milkman song to solipsistic, masturbatory fantasy. The idea of him getting down in the limo with women wearing his face is way creepy, but no creepier than Mick Jagger marrying Bianca Jagger, who looks enough like Mick to be his twin... kent williams -- xxxx@xxxxxx.xxx ICQ:33001909