Bruce Gilbert – This Way

Quite an old recording this (1984), but like any good music within the Industrial/Experimental field, it isn't timely simply because it exists outside of the ever flowing stream of 'Popular' music. All of the first side and much of the second was commissioned by Michael Clark as dance music for ">Do You Me? I Did<". Side one opens with ">Do You Me? I Did (1)<", a gradually-building-yet-remaining-static piece of music which opens on a sub-WHITEHOUSE blast. White Noise sounding closer to tape noise rises and falls throughout the looping, almost choral sound. It hangs in the air like a pleasantly-coloured-yet-somehow-tainted mist, punctuated by the occasional bass sound, or a querulous backwards echo. It has an odd, almost biological flavour to it. ">Do You Me? I Did (2)<" eventually usurps it, replacing it with something typical of GILBERT & LEWIS, which hangs in the air like a delicate but strange artifact, transforming through a breathing-like connection into something similar yet different enough to hold the attention. It sustains, metallic yet dull, creating an atmosphere of mild but obvious threat, a machine dog bark echoing across an empty, abandoned, decadent plaza, insatiable and lonely in the heat of an eternal afternoon. Side two opens with ">Do You Me? I Did (3)<", a more obvious 'dance' piece in that it has a beat (a flanging, breathy, hypnotic rhythm, suggestive of lithe body movement) while synths paint ephemeral abstracts across the invisible walls. This rhythm changes into a more harsh, hard, industrial rhythm, still cold & repetitive, yet so much larger. It reaches in bright metallic streaks for a firmament which might or might not be there, which remains out of reach, beyond touch. It changes into an even more complex piece of stereo panned white noise sequencer which threatens to engulf you if played loud enough, a giant of a piece which injects emotion into the listener. "Here Visit" opens on a looping dense rhythm which seems caught inside an infinite echo chamber, without actually echoing at all, changing gradually, almost imperceptively, hiding it's changes inside it's dense, driving hide, You might describe this as a work written by STEVE REICH, played by the Burundi drummers after tutelage by TEST DEPT. "U, Mu, U" is the only track from this EP/cassette not to appear on the later "This Way To The Shivering Man" CD. Again it is a dense piece of percussive music, although imagine WIM MERTENS looking over REICH's shoulder saying 'no, I'd put a tempo change in there' '3/4, not 4/4', much to REICH's ire.
A very interesting little album this. I'd recommend the aforementioned CD as well (or instead) which has four more longish tracks on. If you're into DOME, GILBERT & LEWIS or that first AC MARIAS AC single, give this a whirl, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.