Bass Communion – latest in a series of ‘music’/sound explorations – blink and you might miss it.
Release Date: 24th May 2024
Label: Fourth Dimension/Lumberton Trading Company
Format: 2LP
Having admired the work of Steven Wilson with his ever increasing and widely varied catalogue that includes his work in Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, Storm Corrosion, No-Man, solo records under his own name, plus all his remixing/remastering and podcast guises, Bass Communion is virgin territory. Despite the glut of Bass Communion material, it’s been an area of the Wilson catalogue, so far unexplored. Until now…
A project that began in the mid-90s and dedicated to exploring his deviations into the realms of ambient, drone, noise and other sub-genres, somehow we’ve managed to miss out on the ten Bass Communion albums to date. On the back of the recent Porcupine Tree reinvention, we’re keen to see how SW is going to follow up and par for the course it’s with the unexpected.
True to his general music making MO, some may point to the perverse streak SW seems to have of striking when least expected. Coming pre-empted with news that the new creation is formed from “a fascination with analogue sounds and ‘unwanted’ analogue by-products of sound creation such as tape hiss, wow and flutter, static noise and sonic break-up,” The Itself Of Itself takes the ‘music’ – should that be the term broadly used to define the contents of The Itself Of Itself – into a different space.
And it’s a very different space we encounter. Some five minutes or so has passed until we realise the first track, Unperson, is actually well underway having crept out unnoticed in the background. It seems that the promised detour from ambient and atmospheric textures to a more disguised collection of noises, is playing out right in front of us, drawing from, well, goodness knows where. And that’s kind of the fun you could have with The Itself Of Itself. In itself the abstract nature of the title playing into the process of interpreting the emerging sounds which could be fun in a primary school music lesson. What does this say to you, kids?
The title track offers more in terms of more obvious musical content with the drones and Apparition 3 makes a nod to more tuneful meanderings. However, the old TV adage of ‘do not adjust your sets’, the interference is deliberate, makes for Blackmail. Conjuring up visions of twirling the dial on the Bakelite radio trying to tune into a friendly wavelength. One that in this instance never comes, bar some disturbing distant industrial sounds. At least that’s what’s conjured up – which in itself proves one way of opening the doors to what’s happening in this strange world of possibilities.
The ‘hold your breath or you might miss it’ (or alternatively readjust your volume knob) Bruise offers twelve minutes of the possibility that there might be something out there as hums and indiscernible undulations of unknown origin are the norm, maybe trying to communicate but losing the battle with interference. Another eleven minutes are dedicated to A Study For Tape Hiss And Other Audio Artefacts which in a few words sums up TIOI, the last minute and a half appear to be nothing more than silence. The gauntlet placed for us to studiously nod in appreciation.
Against other content in the Wilson canon, Bass Communion becomes his obtuse labour of love, one where the beauty remains in the eye of the beholder. But would Bass Communion get a second date. Maybe swapping numbers isn’t an option on this occasion.
Bass Communion online: Bandcamp
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