William Basinski: The Distintegration Loops (Vols I to IV)

Instead of me reviewing/recommending one album... I am going to review 4. The reason why is that it is such a great series. This is from the prolific minimal/ambient composer, "William Basinski". He deals mainly in tape loops, drones, and phasing (imagine two drum beats going side by side, now set the temp (speed) of one drum beat very slightly higher or lower, the sound starts to "phase" in and out being synced, creating an interesting hypnotic effect ("Steve Reich"'s Piano Phases is a great example)) . William had a series of very emotive tape loops that were on literally their last play. He decided to take a collection of these very beautiful tape loops and play their swan song and record them. This was made also very poignant in that it coincided with September 11th (He mentions that in his description). "Clip 3" off of Volume II actually made me kinda choked up during the last couple of minutes when the tape was completely deteriorated before my very ears... It was like recording a poetic death (Like those you read in viking stories). Even though I hold this series in very high regards, this is not for the average listener. clip 1.1 goes on with the same pattern for over an hour, it is distorted and doesn't change at all. You really have to appreciate drone and minimal. If you are new to drone and/or minimal music, I recommend first listening to drone artists like "Starts of the Lid" and "Biosphere", minimal artists like "Steve Reich" and "Hauschka" to slowly getting accustomed to these genres of music. If you are ready to plunge into Minimal drone, however, this is a series for you...beautiful, haunting, and original.

» artist albums @ emusic
» artist profile @ last.fm