Amp, "All Of Yesterday Tomorrow
This 3-CD compilation of singles, non-album tracks, and unreleased material by Amp stays true to their mantra of honoring composition and accident equally. The resulting harmony is by turns uplifting, somnambulant, frustrating, lush, raw, glorious, and imprecise while a hollowness seems to lurk beneath the distorted beauty.
In a sense, Richard Amp and Karine Charff are Amp, but the band's history has involved many collaborators (27 are listed in the notes to this collection). Disc A opens with "Sketch a Star," featuring Richard Amp on guitar. This previously unreleased piece is described in the liner notes as "an exercise in getting an 'analogue' saturated sound replicated using computer technology." Perhaps due to the inclusion of bass and drums, "Remember," the band's first single, is as structured as anything here, but takes a while to get off the ground. The dreamy strum, fuzz, and warble of "Melatonin Red" have an evaporating gorgeous quality.
It took me a while to warm to the vocals on this record, as some of the instrumental pieces seem more intense. Although Karine Charff has always been considered the first "proper" Amp vocalist, Dave Mercer did some singing after the very short-lived tenure of someone called Jo. Ironically, Jo's rather pleasing aaahs and ooohs are featured, along with piano and Ray Dickaty's flute, on "There She Goes." Things take an open and airy turn through the hypnotic delays and tape-loops of "Walking A Line" and the (primarily acoustic) guitars of "A Small Light." A muffled contrast is apparent on "ICU," however, which uses the sampled voice of a baby and sounds like dub in a hospital. The dark and penetrating "Frise" is less an example of shoegazing than a sonic x-ray of the foot and, per its title, "Strangely Charming Quark" comes across as a slow relation of Hawkwind.
Disc M starts brilliantly. In terms of glorious distortion, clanging atmospherics, and complementing vocals, "Beyond," from 1997, is hard to beat. In an ideal world it would have been a chart-busting smash! The track "Silencer" benefits from the kind of ghostly vocals that the sister of Kate Bush might mutter if she existed and was kept locked away in the cellar. The simple analog synth, bass, and guitar of "Ipsu Factum" work like a palate-cleansing piece of ginger during a sushi binge. "Le Revenant" is a previously unreleased early version of "Songe," a lovely composition of French spoken word, guitar atmospherics and piano. Another highlight is the urgent trippiness of "Left It [Too Late]" where Olivier Gauthier adds his programming to the core duo.
The third disc, P, which includes some excellent covers, starts with "Ombres" from 1996, credited as a joint Amp/3rd Eye Foundation release. The track is heavy on juddering echo and percussion, becoming either muddled or cloudy with a chance of complex showers, depending on your perspective. "Je Veux," a piece that was apparently mislaid sometime around 1997, has a feeling of urgency, where layers build into a blistering crescendo of guitar, piano, drums, and rather wonderful moaning, perhaps in French. My favorite item here, "Moon Tree," previously only available on the 1997 compilation Angelfood Electronics, is majestic and mournful, with intense shimmering waves of guitar coupled with effects and feedback codes by Dave Pearce of Flying Saucer Attack. It is six minutes of total bliss.
The traditional piece "Scarborough Fair" is treated spaciously with well-placed accordian and harmonium. A cover of the Silver Apples’ "Seagreen Serenades" is a whirling piece of droning percussive brilliance like music for a slideshow of polaroid negatives set on fast forward. Things slow down beautifully with "So Hot (Wash Away All Of My Tears)," a Spacemen 3 cover that trips delightfully and then stumbles to a stand-still. The effect is like flickering light, waves, or something equally mesmeric. "Televisionface" is metallic and primal, but the cushioned drums create a fuzzy distance between the music and our ear. "Shadowfall," from Amp's first studio session in 1995 and eventually released on the Kranky vinyl version of their third album Astralmoonbeamprojections, is a brief excursion into sonic nothingness. What follows is the original demo of "Tomorrow" from 1998's Stenorette—a fine piece of percusion, piano, and gorgeous lulling vocals overlaid with sweet guitar discordance. There's no mention of accordion, but my ears suggest otherwise. Richard Amp's keyboard, guitar, bass and programming on the scorching, fluttering "Yonder" result in a piece that is as about close to dub as the band come. "When You Have Love" goes on for ages and then, of course, gets most interesting in the last two minutes. Ain't that always the way.
A 2001 track called "Wild Wine Gaze," consisting of field recordings and treatments mixed for inclusion on this compilation, could offer a route into soundtracks or modern classical work. All Of Yesterday Tommorrow is an undoubted treat for fans familiar with either Amp, Movietone, and Flying Saucer Attack. Naturally, the collection looks back, but I suspect that future listeners will also look kindly upon Amp.
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