Fix It In Post (Live, 1997-2001)
by The Freight Elevator Quartet,
Cycling '74, San Francisco, CA, 2001
Audio CD, 14 tracks.
c74-o01
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be
The Freight Elevator Quartet started its improvisations in a... freight
elevator in New York in 1997. They are: R. Luke Dubois max/msp programming,
analog modular synths, guitar, bass, keyboard and effects; Paul Feuer
didjeridoo, keyboards, synth bass and programming; Rachael Finn cellos
and effects and Stephen Krieger beats, drum machines, keyboard, sampling
and effects. DJ Spooky, Elliott Sharp, Jonathan Lee and Ken Thomson
appear on some of the 14 tracks. The recordings were taken from four
years of performance by the quartet. They chronicle the progression
of their sound from the chaotic first freight elevator performance through
their more recent work. Most of them are composites from different performances,
some as many as three years apart.
"Our music is largely improvised, so no two shows are the same, and
we tried to reflect the range of sound and styles in the composite tracks.
As computers become so immersed in our cultural discourse that they
become literally transparent, we're interested in highlighting the juxtaposition
of technology with acoustical instrumentation and human improvisation,
using electronics and computers in the framework of four people in a
band performing on stage."
For afficionados of the quartet and its mild, unassuming, babbling sound
this is probably a collector's item. And it probabaly has its archival
value, but there is nothing really surprising or innovative on this
cd. Timbres and colours are not unheard, rhythms are there just to make
sure the audience doesn't forget there is music, samples are predictable
and add practically nothing to the discourse, all the cliches of the
synths are present and not even in an interesting combination. I wonder
where the pretence comes from that this is 'highlighting the juxtaposition...'
since there is no added value whatsoever
Track 7 is appropriately named 'How does it feel to be going out of
style?' thus illustrating what the fashionable audience's most eistential
fears are probably all about. Track 13 is "Excerpt from 'Berlin: Symphony
of a Great City', written and recorded with dj Spooky. Now that looks
promising! Surprise. It isn't. There is of course a drum box and some
layers of sound Yes, there are.
In short, freight elevators could be put to better use.