With a screech of feedback compressed into what appears to be a tight loop of noise gently overlaid by a much softer electric guitar part, "Brush Fire" begins the 2011 collaborative album by performers
Aaron Martin and
Expo '70's
Justin Wright on a strong note -- there's an immediate sense of a willingness to put contrasting elements together instead of simply smoothing them out. From the album title forward there's a sense of aptness in names throughout, that each song is called what it is for a clear reason. "Moon Smoke," for instance, feels like a spacy swirl thanks to plenty of echo surrounding theremin notes bursting and skittering over a buried series of feedback loops. "Shallow Breather" is another one where the title hits the mark, an underlying part feeling like a slow breath in and out as various metallic noises and tones and more drift through the mix in a gently chaotic but not uncontrolled fashion. More theremin as well as haunted-house organ from Mars make up "Sleep Threaded into Ashes" in turn. It's a bit of mood-setting exploratory zoning that may not last as long as it could to make a full impact, but is enjoyably if conventionally disorienting. It finally leads into a slightly more straightforward drone charge with a calmer guitar figure playing underneath -- it would fit perfectly behind a proclamation or two by
Edward Ka-Spel. The title track almost acts as a way to put everything heard on the album together in one place, drones, feedback swirls, theremin noise, and more sounding like any number of late-night zone-out jam sessions at a Terrastock come to evil life, at once crushing and entrancing. ~ Ned Raggett