a r t i s t : Barton Smith
t i t l e : Reelizations I & II: The Sound of Barton Smith
d a t e : 2004
l a b e l : EM (EM1043DCD)
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Jun/2006
t r a c k s : 20
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 124,1 MB
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There is a very fine line between schizophrenia and a totally
eclectic diverse creativity and we seem to enjoy music most
when that line remains really blurry. This 2-cd set, recorded
between 1980-82 by electronic alchemist Barton Smith
definitely straddles that weird blurry line. One moment
basking in tender beauty while the next moment flourishing
into a noisy wall-of-sound. Very little was known about Smith.
The fact that Smithsonian Folkways originally released these
tracks on vinyl back in the early '80s, and still Smith
remained a relative unknown, just adds to the mystique. The
first disc opens up with what sounds like gamelan influenced
percussion on homemade instruments, followed by pastoral
pretty meandering guitar and then underwater sounding
rumblings drenched in primitive sounding electronics. We have
been totally intrigued and in awe of these recordings since we
first got this set in a few weeks back. Listening to it
nonstop, and trying to think about how this was received in
the early '80s when even now it still sounds so ahead of its
time. Former AQ-er Windy came in recently and jumped for joy
to see this on the new arrivals rack, telling us how she
scored an original vinyl copy years back at a flea market and
it's always been a record she found so weird and wonderful and
special. Outside of Windy, we haven't really come across
anyone else who knew anything about Barton Smith. We've come
to discover that these were recordings he made for modern
dance troupes and we can only struggle to imagine bodies
moving to his ever changing sounds. While for most musicians
it can be tricky and problematic to change gears and sounds so
often within an album, there is something so natural and lucid
and smooth about the extremes explored on Reelizations. We
can't think of many musicians who have the ability to explore
such a wide range with this much success and intrigue.
Moondog's versatility and eclectic output is someone who came
to mind when trying to figure out how to classify Mr. Smith.
From acoustic tranquility to electric outbursts this had us
picking up on a totally diverse range of reference points:
Sandy Bull, Jim O'Rourke, This Heat, Koji Asano. And for sure
you could start seeing how years later groups would start
exploring similar sonic atmospheres. Black Dice, Excepter,
Loren Connors are some who come to mind. Scott even suspects
that Kieren Hebden might have heard this at some point, as
there is a really good chance that the Barton Smith track
"Lotus" was sampled on the Four Tet album Rounds. This is a
record that we can't stop listening to or thinking about. We
hear so much music everyday, when something kicks our ass this
hard we know we've discovered something really special.
As with all releases on the fabulous Japanese reissue label
EM, this is gorgeously packaged, coming in an oversized double
jewel case, with a huge booklet, tons of photos and lots of
liner notes -- those unfortunately all in Japanese.
http://www.aquariusrecords.org
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Reelizations I
01-Akimbo [04:46]
02-Scene Four [04:04]
03-T S Danza [03:27]
04-Prelude in G # Major [01:41]
05-Roland No. 119 [05:43]
06-Azirthmyth [04:13]
07-Perihelion [08:53]
08-Biease [02:22]
09-Feast [03:52]
10-Pleasure Guitar [01:26]
11-The Tube [05:25]
Reelizations II
01-Cit-Calm [02:27]
02-Gate of Shariz [07:05]
03-Magnus Continuum [02:37]
04-The Musical Box [02:29]
05-Odestes [02:30]
06-Morcadu [08:06]
07-Reign [03:29]
08-Play-Gull [04:03]
09-Lotus [08:06]
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86:44 min