ARTIST: Wayne B
TITLE: Night Of The Hunter
LABEL: Quatermass
GENRE: Lo-Fi
BITRATE: 170 kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 41min total
RELEASE DATE: 2005-10-14
RIP DATE: 2005-10-28
Track List
----------
01. Souvenir 3:18
02. Lures & Snares 2:20
03. Oak (In The Small Hours) 4:29
04. Dogville 4:52
05. Articles Of Faith 4:29
06. Ten To One 2:24
07. Garden Of The Weaver 3:45
08. Langor Train 5:08
09. See Through 2:16
10. Back Porch Apology 8:28
Release Notes:
Rather quietly, multi-instrumentalist Wayne B. Magruder has wended
an interesting path through the blurred post-rock undergrowth.
Dividing his time between NYC and Austin, Magruder has played
with such acts as Bowery Electric, Main, and Windsor for the Derby,
and since 1997 has been drummer/programmer for the shape-shifting
indie combo Calla. Throughout these projects, Magruder has cut
something of an elusive figure, with his textured contributions often
hidden anonymously in the brush. And though Night of the Hunter is
ostensibly Wayne B's first full-fledged solo album, even here he seems
reluctant to escape his natural tendency to recede off into the music's shadows.
Constructed of gauzy samples, processed lo-fi percussion, and acoustic guitar,
Night of the Hunter builds a solid case in favor of organic, Four Tet-like
nuance, and grainy sub-bass atmospheres. Most of the tracks here feature the cool,
virtually interchangeable vocals of Jana Plewa or Daphne Gannon, and on casual
listen one might easily mistake either singer to be the album's true headliner.
This is due largely to the low-key, nonchalant ease with which Wayne B completes
his numerous activities, as he seamlessly incorporates unfussy strands of
campfire guitar or cryptic found sounds into his serene patterns without stirring a
ripple.
Given Magruder's background as a percussionist, it comes as a mild disappointment
to hear the stiff, inconsequential beats that anchor tracks like the opening
"Souvenir" or "Oak (In the Small Hours)", although both are somewhat salvaged by a surging
lo-fi wash reminiscent of the lush space-rock of groups like Auburn Lull. More
intriguing is "Dogville",whose central rhythm is also accompanied by stray percussive clatter that sounds
as though it might've bled through the walls from a nearby carpenter's workshop.
Midway through, the album takes a decided upward turn with the supple, dub-like
pulse of "Ten to One", on which Magruder at last begins to assert himself with some
propulsive invention. This momentum carries on through the swinging door creak
of "Garden of the Weaver", the dusty cinema of "Langor Train" and the
slow-motion,bottom-heavy throb of "See Through". During this multi-hued sequence of tracks,
Magruder wisely forsakes his earlier static electronic rhythms, allowing live
drums, bass, and an ever-shifting montage of veiled sound sources to produce an
entrancing dry heat shimmer, like waves of sunlight reflecting off baked highway pavement.
He continues on this thread for Night of the Hunter's closer, "Back Porch
Apology", a lengthy instrumental piece that combines the album's most prominent acoustic
guitar work with a suitably murky rhythmic stroke. Appropriately, this last
evocative track provides the type of mesmeric, but ultimately ephemeral soundtrack that
one might expect at movie's end, when the hero rides away before the audience ever
gets a chance to truly know him.