BLUETECH

Prima Materia

Waveform (2003)

review by Brian Voerding

Some time ago, I ventured out on the town to watch some friends play a live electronic set. Afterward, in an attempt to generate conversation, I made an inane comment to the guitar player about "IDM sensibility." He stiffened as if I had made a faux pas equivalent to hitting on his girlfriend with him around. Later, I came to realize that giving an electronic musician an IDM is the same as giving a rock musician the dreaded "emo" label.

But, my guitar-playing friend exists as a musician and I as a critic. IDM is a term for me, not for him. As brash as it may be, it has some application to Bluetech's (a.k.a. Evan Bartholomew) debut full-length, Prima Materia. I'll repeat the term a few more times here to lessen the impact. IDM, IDM, IDM. There.

Prima Materia is an ambitious debut, featuring Introspective, bubbly drones laced with IDM filter-sweep trickery and extended bouts of experimentation and improvisation. It's tasteful, yet somewhat transparent, especially in the earlier goings, where Bartholomew seems content to simply explore downtempo, psychotropic environments. The first few tracks drop resonant beats above delay-stricken, often arpeggiated synth lines. The sound/synth quality is immediately phenomenal, owing to Bartholomew's Reaktor modular setup, but none of the first offerings feel interactive.

The third track, a remix of Sound From the Ground's "Triangle" (coyly re-entitled "Triangle (retriangulated)") is a tasteful addition to the Prima Materia palette; however, experimentation with form and melody is held at a minimal level. The arpeggiated falling melodies are intruiging, but soon slip away. "Prayers for Rain" opens with a post-rock influenced, minor key melody, playing with collapsing walls of feedback before dissolving into a quirky trip-hop groove. In a rare allowance, Bartholomew lets his Rhodes chops shine on an extended modal solo.

There's no sense of immediacy or struggle within the A-side compositions. Rather, most are content to act the part of rich kids with daddy's money, lounging about as static fixtures. Dynamic sensibility is apparent in the juxtapositioning of lines, but lacks traditional volume swells and falls. Without a strong sense of form, songs tend to blur into one another. Extended improvisation sections are few and far between. Curiously, however, the record picks up pace in the second half, where could-have-been-wallflower compositions become quite organic.

"White Magnesia", the sixth offering, is a mirror flashing the best reflections of Telefon Tel Aviv and other John Hughes cronies. The relatively simple beat shrinks under the scrupulous complexity of other MPC-toting, knit-cap hipster inventions, but Bartholomew allows it to take a backseat to extensive knob-twiddling impovisation. Simple pitch and cutoff modulations dominate his tasteful explorations.

Bartholomew's improvisations become increasingly liberal on the second half of the record, and as a result, the compositions are more lively and more compelling. "7th Phase Dub" is rich in creativity, an ADHD-produced composition jumping from acoustic guitar samples to wild, breathy flute melodies. Arpeggiated synth lines bounce in the distance, driving the increasingly frenetic pace into the following offerings.

Towards the end of the record, Barthomolew is spinning in a studio chair, back and forth between knobs and modules, leaving no element unmodified, no melody untouched. While maintaining a strong rhythmic presence, the songs shimmer with spiraling frequencies. Ambient drones snuck out the side door four tracks ago and fortunately, Bartholomew seems unaware.

The record ends with a brooding, it's 4am and the bars are closed and i'm alone piano outro. Save a few additions of reverse delay, it's a minimalist affair, and despite my best efforts to think it sappy or otherwise, it's downright pretty.

The quality of Prima Materia sways at a near seasick degree, but as uneven as the material is, it's undoubtedly coming from a highly-talented, creative source. The best of the best moments are enough to counterbalance the monotony of the earlier compositions, and if Bartholomew sticks to his guns, later Bluetech releases are bound to be fully-realized gems.