Suborno's debut LP The Instrument delivers on its title with music that glimpses wide open spaces heard from inside acoustic guitars, augmented w/electronic embellishments and other sonic detritus. Some of these pieces sound more like sketches, but instead of frustrating by hinting at possibilities, they revel in their playful, raw glory. These songs tell a story that doesn't require polish, as they are common to all humankind.
Album opener "Failure magnifies" evokes images of lonesome great plains and vast, limitless opportunity. Eventually a rhythmic motif develops and we are riding off into the sunset, fueled by wishful thinking and the possibilities lying beyond the horizon. "And when he smiled" is a beautiful 6/8 Appalachia sounding waltz w/imagined voices singing the simplest accompaniment. "An uncertain evisceration of nothing" features rather aggressive, raw picking in a prodigious Gypsy style. If it was coming through amplifiers it might recall something more punk. "Flights" has dulcimer sounds and sampled voices adorning rattling strings that seem to be moving at high speeds. I imagine this is what the insides of a watch sound like just before its mechanism fails.
"The star with one only one string" adds banjo played with an Eastern flavor, bass, and percussive elements such as clapping, snapping and some sort of hand drumming. It's detuned and reckless, winding down the street w/too many inebriates in its system."DRRMBSL" has sampled unintelligible vocals, shaker, and bells triggering controlled, sustained feedback. A feeling of distance traveled pervades, riding over landscape on horseback or train in a lost old west memory. Glitch informed "Routine. Attack. Creativity" offers more rhythmic picking and ping ponging pad sounds with subtle additions of electronics and sitar like ringing string drones. "Fa(r)ther"is built on reverb heavy, lazy strumming that recalls sunlight streaming through a window onto the floor in the morning. It's lonely, but not melancholy, illustrated by clusters of picking surrounded by winsome lead lines. Final composition "Division / Separation" launches a solemn picked out chord progression into space with echoing scraped strings hovering just out of reach that ride out on voices singing nothing in particular.
This record is sonically pleasing on many levels, from its pristine recording to the bits of ear candy floating about in the mix. Soundtrack-like and haunting, it's a recommended listening experience.
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