Released
1998
Label
Beggars Banquet
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Beggars Banquet
17-19 Alma Road
London SW18 1AA
United Kingdom
Visit
Last Edit/Update
10 juli, 1998
Main
FIRMAMENT IV
Track Listing
1. XVI
2. XVII
3. XVIII
4. XIX
5. XX
6. XXI
7. XXII
8. XXIII
9. XXIV
10. XXV
11. XXVI
As the title suggests, Firmament IV is the latest in a series representing the
darker, more extreme side of Main, and it is a very strange, fascinating,
and at times disconcerting CD. In the style of Main's other releases, all
the music on Firmament IV was created exclusively using guitars, effect pedals, and
various frequency filtering devices. The result very seldom sounds like anything created
on guitars, and often bears little or no resemblance to anything one has ever heard
before.
With the departure of Scott
Dawson in '96, Main is now the solo-project of Robert Hampson.
However, this reduction of the line-up does not appear to have altered Hampson's
aspirations or approach. In the past he has expressed his intention of exploring the
extreme possibilities of creating unique music with guitars, and he has stated his
ambition that each release should be different from the last. With Firmament IV, Hampson
continues to venture deeper into a musical vacuum that increasingly approaches the
absolute silence that he has also claimed does not exist. Like Main's
other releases, this one too has been made available by Beggars Banquet,
and is packaged in a digi-pak with art work reminiscent of past releases -- this time in
aquatic textured blue and green colors.
All the individual tracks on the CD
bleed into each other, in effect making Firmament IV one long (67 min), continuous
piece of otherworldly music. An array of aural minutiae dance in front of layered curtains
of sustained humming, and hovering presences. More defined waves of heavily manipulated
sounds intermittently wash over the soundpicture; echoing and gyrating signals penetrate
the sonic fabric like falling meteorites; and, obscure corrugated noises appear and
disappear without warning, as if they had been received by Main from the
beyond by some unaccountable accident. At times, the buzzing soundscapes wane, and the
compositions lapse into extended periods of (near) complete silence, which are then
abruptly broken once more, usually by the violent jerk of some unexpected impact of
amplified interference. Firmament IV really is like a voyage into some unknown
negative space, where time seems to stand still, and all known sounds are inverted,
fragmented or sustained beyond recognition.
