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Jim O'Rourke, "I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1,2,3,4"
While this Mego release from O'Rourke may go completely off in theother direction of his concurrent "Insignificance" in that it's a"Powerbook" disc, the compositions which make up the three title tracksvary themselves...
"I'm Happy" is comprised of multi-layered vibratosynth and sampled bagpipe ostinatos weaving in and out of each other.When first introduced, they come across as tense, but eventually blendnicely with a long, low rumbling from something resembling a boweddouble bass to break the tension and channel a release. "And I'mSinging" starts with ticking stopwatches, bells and chimes which giveway to a high end dentist drill-like squelch and percussive fumblingsas a backdrop for a flurry of distorted keyboard lines and snippets,pretty piano flourishes and a distant kick drum beating out the time.The piece has some nice movement of sections within it's structure,once again breaking the tension. Even an acoustic guitar is played,sampled and added to the mix. For me, "And A 1,2,3,4" is the surprisetrack. Clocking in at over 20 minutes, this track conveys theatmosphere and mood of listening to Labradford, SOTL, or Godspeed, withit's hauntingly beautiful arrangement of swelling strings, tremologuitar and keyboard drones. At first, the segments of the piece soundalmost random, but after a few cycles through you get the feeling ofhow it moves as a motif becomes more apparent. This disc is bound tosurprise a lot of O'Rourke fans who have come to expect his uniqueangle with this solo showcase on the laptop. The three tracks, havingbeen recorded live in New York, Osaka and Tokyo back between 1997 and1999 begs the question, what the hell took so long for us to get tohear this stuff? -
"I'm Happy" is comprised of multi-layered vibratosynth and sampled bagpipe ostinatos weaving in and out of each other.When first introduced, they come across as tense, but eventually blendnicely with a long, low rumbling from something resembling a boweddouble bass to break the tension and channel a release. "And I'mSinging" starts with ticking stopwatches, bells and chimes which giveway to a high end dentist drill-like squelch and percussive fumblingsas a backdrop for a flurry of distorted keyboard lines and snippets,pretty piano flourishes and a distant kick drum beating out the time.The piece has some nice movement of sections within it's structure,once again breaking the tension. Even an acoustic guitar is played,sampled and added to the mix. For me, "And A 1,2,3,4" is the surprisetrack. Clocking in at over 20 minutes, this track conveys theatmosphere and mood of listening to Labradford, SOTL, or Godspeed, withit's hauntingly beautiful arrangement of swelling strings, tremologuitar and keyboard drones. At first, the segments of the piece soundalmost random, but after a few cycles through you get the feeling ofhow it moves as a motif becomes more apparent. This disc is bound tosurprise a lot of O'Rourke fans who have come to expect his uniqueangle with this solo showcase on the laptop. The three tracks, havingbeen recorded live in New York, Osaka and Tokyo back between 1997 and1999 begs the question, what the hell took so long for us to get tohear this stuff? -
