Artist : Hallock Hill
Album : The Union
Year : 2011
Genre : Instrumental
Quality : 195kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Source : CD
Playtime : 0h 43m
Size : 61.58mb
Label : Hundred Acre
Catalognr : HA03
Tracklist:
01. I Began To Lose Myself Within A Wonder 4:16
02. Sand In My Eyes 4:41
03. Ausable 4:05
04. Grow 3:29
05. Marked 4:31
06. The Chair 4:42
07. The Miller 3:07
08. Pencil Spin 10:34
09. On Sundays When I Wake Up 4:28
Releasenotes:
According to the Hundred Acre Recordings website, Hallock Hill is the "nom de
plume of Tom Lecky: an homage to the rural country where he was born in upstate
New York. Tom is now a 20 year resident of New York City and its environs."
Whereas groups like Public Enemy and Love incorporated sounds from the thump and
blur of the city into their music, Lecky has made the conscious decision to
focus on the relative peace of the countryside. Fans of Richard Skelton may
immediately be drawn to a principle that could potentially involve found sound,
but shouldn't expect to be swathed in similarity. For starters, Lecky's primary
instrument is the guitar, and there hasn't exactly been a barrel of riveting
solo guitar albums released of late. If you're thinking this album might be
something coursing through the cocaine stained vein of late 80s fretboard
destroyers like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteem, then picture a
deconstructed, introspective and experimental Al Di Meola instead; but only for
the subtle Mediterranean modes and scales that Lecky occasionally riffs on.
It is perhaps Ry Cooder's The Long Riders that serves as the best reference
point for the lost gypsy blues that make up The Union, as this particular
American son's playing is similarly understated, meditative and plaintive.
Deeply layered tracks come together, heading to shore, moving persistently.
Tangled up in a judicious vine of reverb and intermittent delay, Lecky's
recorded acoustic guitar sounds solid - the timbre of the woods almost thick
enough to chop percussively through speakers. When Lecky's guitar is dry, itÆs
almost verbal; but when drenched in reverb, there is something religious
contained within its generous tonality.
Attempting to place The Union alongside another guitar album seems facile, as
there simply seems to be little of its like in existence. Occasionally, when
Lecky bends a note just a half step (as he does on the rolling 'Ausable' - most
likely named after Au Sable, Clinton County, New York), an image of Davy Graham
flits briefly across the mind, yet Lecky's style and delivery here is unique.
Where there isn't the rare bent note to imply emotion, arpeggios fall across
each other like children playing amongst autumnal leaves and - between them -
single string melodies jut out like pointed rocks: 'The Chair' is a prime
example of this.
It doesn't stop there. There is the 10 minutes of 'Pencil Spin' to get lost in:
a piece that has the warmth of early, experimental Eno as heavily effected
electric guitars are beset by stabbing, distorted shards of fuzz that sound like
Jimi Hendrix stepping on one of Pan Sonic's pedals by accident. It's a gripping
piece - again, one in perpetual motion which furthers the implication that The
Union is ultimately about the evolution of Tom Lecky, the man, amongst Hallock
Hill, the surroundings.
http://www.hallockhill.com