The thought of solo electric guitar improv generally fills me with a mixture of extreme apprehension, apathy, and an overwhelming urge to be elsewhere, but Justin Wright seems to have found a very compelling little glacial niche for himself. White Ohms is a surprisingly hypnotic and unique album.
Peasant Magik
White Ohms is a companion piece to 2008's Black Ohms and is composed of outtakes from those sessions. All of the tracks are made up of a single electric guitar being looped, but unlike many other experimental guitarists, Wright eschews electronic manipulation: his guitar sounds like a guitar. There are several easily identifiable influences here, such as krautrock, minimalism, Eno, and Earth, but Expo '70 manages to forge a unique sound rooted in endless mantra-like repetition, clarity, and seemingly inhuman patience.
The opening track, "Mantra in White Ohms," initially left me scratching my head, as it is composed almost entirely of a single sustained power chord that slowly ebbs and flows in volume. A soft looped pop approximates a very slow bass drum pulse but literally nothing else is added to the steadily droning wash of sound except for an occasional click or two (until the spectacularly subtle climax of a heavily-delayed random guitar noise). I am actually quite fond of it, as it is improbably mesmerizing, but I was not sure what to expect from the rest of the album after hearing a single chord drawn out for 15 minutes. Amusingly, the second track, "Land of Light," is built upon even less (a single repeated plucked note), taking minimalism to still more perverse extremes. Unlike "Mantra," however, "Land of Light" is augmented by some excellent spectral and spacey improvisation, which Wright is quite adept at. "Empyreal Totem," the final track on the side, continues the trend of incorporating new elements with each successive track, as it has an actual multi-note riff as its foundation. Of course, it is still soothing and languid, but it is a riff nonetheless. Again, the lead guitar is often brilliant. While it becomes somewhat conventional by the end of the track, the first half features a teasingly sparse trickle of near-perfect droplets of glistening sound.
The second side kicks off in somewhat workmanlike fashion with "White Rift," which was disappointing after the consistently enjoyable and surprising first side. Paradoxically, it fails because there is too much going on. The central riff is a bit busy sounding and the repeating distorted sustained power chord is both unsubtle and uninteresting. While it is not necessarily bad, it sounds like it could have come from any number of forgettable krautrock records. Fortunately, the absolutely brilliant "Tonal Elation" follows and delivers beautifully on the promise displayed on the first half of the album. While it is superficially very similar to "Land of Light," there are subtle differences that elevate it to an almost perfect oasis of blissful, droning, spaced-out psychedelia: textural hums, echoey scrapes, drowsy throbs, and even some subtle melodic movement near the end. "Serenity" then finishes the album with twelve languid and sublime minutes of sustained shimmering ambiance.
White Ohms has made me an enthusiastic Expo '70 fan: Justin Wright has an mastery of space and simplicity that has me in awe (as well as a knack for bad-ass seventies-inspired cover art). I imagine this cassette will sell out quickly, as it is a limited edition of 200, but he is a pretty prolific guy so more releases should be on the way. Besides, if the session outtakes are this impressive, I imagine the actual Black Ohms album must be one hell of a record (and it is somewhat less limited).
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