We are more than our possessions, even when one of them happens to exceed the value of a modest house on Lake Erie. Much has been said about the great Tom Chiu, and I don’t intend to challenge the journalism that predates this review of Tom’s new record.
I won’t even make note of any absurd parallels to a famous jam band whose first proper live offering happens to be titled A Live One. Not the fact that it is a double cd (the release of “The Live One” barely coincides with the 26th anniversary of A Live One (and that is no round number), nor that Tom’s Flux Quartet shares the same number of members as the band that shall not be named, really justifies any fair comparison. Do I dare continue this diversion? I will if asked.
Okay, one last point, and that’s all, I swear!
The Flux Quartet, founded by Tom, performed Morton Feldman's six-hour marathon String Quartet No. 2. That’s a long show wouldn’t you say? Sound like any trampoline jumping, drummer wearing his mom’s vintage dress (respect to him and his mom), harboring $1 grilled cheese sandwich production from broken down Vanagons in parking lots, fronted by a Princeton native who worships The Rhombus (ok… derives inspiration, no judgement!)… other quartet? Lord knows I tried.
For a little more context, beyond my speculation, Mr. Chiu has collaborated with the likes of Ornette Coleman (extensively!), Alvin Lucier (I am sitting in a room, thank you very much!), and definitive balloonist, Judy Dunaway(no real joke here). Enough Tom 101, let’s get down to the Nitty Gritty, because the circle may be broken, I’m afraid.
A fairer comparison for a legendary double album, be it LP or CD, might be the White Album, for its shear breadth and variety, engaging with electronics with his raw and bold hand, further on, headfirst into the bpms and all the tempos, then a slow burn to forest fire of layers turned orchestra, all the way to straight up classical, but like, up in your face. Was that a run-on? I had to.
Do record reviews risk spoilers? If so, here’s one: at the tail end of the final track, deKonstruct, (which stops suddenly), the audience, perhaps at NYC’s Roulette, makes an appearance with a rollicking applause (same reaction at the end of Duo Improvisation16741, and BABIP and RETROCON, especially). Yeah, I think it’s a live record.
Some of the sounds on the 20-minute Duo Improvisation 16741 truly reach other planets and the inner worlds of the inhabitants of those planets, including the sci-fi planets their authors write about. There are sounds within sounds within sounds. Some zones are discovered here, and there were people present to prove it, (at least one of them recorded it). If Tom is playing his 1913 Stefano Scarampella on all of these tracks, it causes me to think of how much more action this instrument has gotten in the 21st century than the 20th. No offense, 20th.
You see, Tom got this violin, and he learned how to make it talk. Be it when he accompanies said violin Into the Forest, braving the honeybees’ nest, the whippoorwilll, howling wind, he turns proverbial pied piper, leading a trail of nature from his improvisations. BABIP blasts in with pizzicato and leaps into long form passes of his bow, adding effects pedals which goes quite psychedelic. He knows loud quiet loud, and he does it like a classically trained musician. Is there an animator out there willing to attempt a visual companion to these sounds?
Birave Trifecta entering territory of early Mouse on Mars and Matmos, raves well beyond Mccartney’s faux Kraftwerk, Temporary Secretary. With a stronger grasp of Classical music history I might be able to pick up the references in some spots. There is something on this track that I can’t distinguish between Old Timey piano and prepared piano. All of that said, I’m waiting on Aphex Twin for his remix, for cash.
RETROCON(Retroactive continuity) noun: literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work are adjusted, ignored, or contradicted by a subsequently published work which breaks continuity with the former. Or as I like to put it: what was that Deadpool character in X-men Origins: Wolverine (2009) all about? Awful! Words truly do not describe the emotions felt by early Marvel Comics Universe film franchise fans. The applause at the end of this performance clearly encapsulates the relief felt after viewing Deadpool (2016).
Stefane Grapelli ripped, no one will deny that (sure, someone will). Tony Conrad (RIP) joined Faust Outside the Dream Syndicate with his signature scrape-age. Boyd Tinsley (not the same jam band, but a jam band all the same) brought the heat to Ants Marching. It seems relevant to mention Warren Ellis and his cinematic collaborations with Nick Cave, as there are quite a few filmic moments on The Live One, and Tom’s scored a few films (<hot link).
Tom Chiu, a contemporary of all of these violinists, exhibits, particularly in this record, his vast knowledge of genres and his own inventions, which defy categorization. That is, of course, unless I dive further into Phil Niblock’s (since 1985) XI catalogue and realize Tom is biting some of his label-mates’ ideas. That is… unlikely. Eliane Radigue’s long-form pieces go softly into that good meditation. Alan Licht’s New York Minute goes hard on the weather reports. Gen Ken Montgomery has his hands full with all the not-made-for-music, but-definitely-sound objects found around the house. Case in point: The Aquarium Fishtank Symphony (didn’t make that up).
All of that said, Drone-master Phil Niblock has quite a stable of artists, one for the ages (actually all the way back to 1968 by Elaine Summers!) Here’s to 52 years of quality sonic exploration, composed, live, recorded and supported.
Cheers, Tom!
Experimental Intermedia : XI 145
-Adam Padavano
