| Foxy Digitalis
This is actually a reissue of an album that Jefre Cantu-Ledesma
recorded as part of Temporary Residence Limited’s “Travels In Constants”
series in 2004, along with his tracks from a split CD with 1 Mile North
and The Wind-Up Bird from the same year. At that point, he was probably
best known for being part of post-rock group Tarentel. Hearing this album
for the first time now, it seems as different as his main group then as
it seems compared to his current work, either solo or as part of The Alps.
Most of the tracks on this album are brief, usually about a minute or
two, and focus on loops utilizing acoustic guitar, piano, field recordings
and electronics/processing. The loops generally have a fragile feel to
them; there’s lots of static and crackle, and sometimes the sounds of
the instruments being picked up. Especially on pieces such as “Reykjavik,”
the feeling is reminiscent of William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops,
but instead of playing the loops until they literally turn into dust,
Cantu-Ledesma will usually cut them off after a minute or two. The succession
of short, crackly loops works really well, every piece sounds different
and it never gets boring. Towards the end of the disc however, are the
two longest tracks, which stretch out to 7 and 12 minutes apiece. “Eat
The Moon” is a very still, quiet piano drone featuring what I assume is
the outdoor rustlings of the night air. “Texas Heat” ends the disc with
12 minutes of organ drone, just letting everything out.
Delives
I missed the original release of "Love Loops" in 2003 on Temporary
Residence, even if I previously enjoyed his "Spring" EP on Dream
By Degrees in 2002.
Now listening to this new edition on the Japanese label Flau, with three
bonus tracks, I strongly regret my lack of attention and feel grateful
for this second chance."Love Loops" is a minimalist ambient
record, very soothing with its warmth, its quietness and melancholic atmospheres.
There are 15 songs based on loops for a total length 45 minutes. Tracks
oscillate between one and twelve minutes and you never have the impression
it is too short or too long, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is capturing moments,
each time weighing up emotions and climates with sensitivity, developing
a welcome and comforting hushed delicacy.
He starts playing acoustic guitar on "This Is How You Spell Almanac",
quiet, soft and pensive. "Reykjavik" is an orchestral vinyl
loop which stands perfectly just below the one minute mark like a sunrise
through winter. A solitary walk with "Prospect Park", before
the gorgeous and intimate "Mangoes And Sticky Rice" which reminds
me of Empress, leading to a city view from the top of an hill, birds singing
all around and distant traffic noise muffled in the background, "Your
Body Was Like A Jungle Aflame", followed by an instant of introspective
joy, "Kona", a sudden sunny spell revealing beauty in the landscape.
There is something icy with "First Day Back From Brooklyn/Fingers
Through Your Hair", breathing cold hair under a foggy sky, full of
melancholic perfume, before a darker "Amsterdam". Delicate and
nostalgic, "Sunset In Your Mother's Garden" perfectly pictures
autumnal drizzle in a garden, or later at sea with "Ikebana".
A single loop played during 1:48, "Love loop", a trumpet fragment
with high-pitched sounds, for something Lynchian, before an aerial "Eat
the moon", seven minutes of lost reverberated piano notes à la Stars
of the Lid, shivering and entrancing, which is in fact, under another
name, the track "Vicodin Dream / Josi's Last Stand" from the
"Conduction Convection Radiation" split album with 1 Mile North
and The Wind-Up Bird. The two other tracks from there, "Watching
Josi Die" and "Texas Heat" end this album. As a whole,
"Love Loops" is a quite impressive and convincing album, and
seven years after its first release we can now presume it is something
like a classic to keep preciously.
Boomkat
Early album from Tarentel/The Alps member Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - finally
given a full release* Originally released via Temporary Residence in 2003,
Love Loops has come to be regarded as something of a classic. It's the
work of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, best known for his membership in Tarantel
and The Alps, though here he's in hushed mode, recording small sketched
recordings and lovingly processing them into shape. This is so much more
than some meandering lo-fi collection of odds and ends, however: at the
beginning of the album Cantu-Ledesma draws together fragmented miniatures,
in which rustic acoustic guitar pieces switch abruptly into field recorded
sketches or crackling, glitch-laden ambient passages. After a few minutes
of this shifting, strangely inconsistent sequence the bigger picture starts
to reveal itself, and Love Loops starts making a lot of sense. Like a
series of polaroids, each track helps build up a sense of melancholic
mood and atmosphere, from the complex environmental sounds and loose-fitting
drone-folk melodies of 'Ikebana' to the piano elegy of 'Sunset In Your
Mother's Garden', each track seems to find a different way of saying the
same thing. Notably, this Flau reissue expands upon the wonderful original
album to the tune of a further three bonus tracks, including the blissful
twelve-minute organ drift of 'Texas Heart'. Love Loops turns out to have
been something of a lost gem, only now resurfacing from obscurity and
making a welcome return to wider circulation.Gorgeous.
|
