This beautifully-packaged limited edition CD-R sees Finland's A Way pitch four tracks against a single twenty-minute Jazzfinger epic. It's an evolutionary fact that even the collaborative spirit of split CD-Rs still leaves the listener with a winner and a loser; someone's going to end up being the b-side.Mallard Lake
While A Way's work here was recorded way back in late 2003 it still holds an intimate fresh appeal with its foggy strummed harmonics, underwater percussion, drones and inner ear clacking. It's pleasant enough listening even if the four tracks all pull from the same source moves and material, and even with this capable daub of autumnal hum over four offerings they're shunted into second place by the sheer glorious weight of Jazzfinger's "The Sun is my Enemy, the Wind is my Friend." Kicking off with what for a few seconds sounds like a corroded Slayer riff, the trio take a steadily stunning craggy drone and let it unwind, crackling feedback and bad electrics as it unspools into the sound of a constantly burning oppressive scouring Sun. Even when the ferocity fades a little with unexpected lulls the music still burns with a quiet fire and whether the elemental nature of the track is intentional or nothing more than imagination fired by the title the heat is palpable. But its not all blistering temperatures as influences of a more Middle Eastern / Indian nature show up in repeated melodic passages of spoiled notes. Skirting a
predictable structure these parts still move around the tightly strung higher end of the scale with considerable intent. A Way never really stood a chance.
samples:
- A Way - Around Under
- A Way - First Wind
- Jazzfinger - The Sun is Your Enemy, the Wind is Your Friend
