Album Review: Kevin Greenspon - To Leave A Mark
I suppose over the given duration of an artist’s career,
some growth and change are to be expected. Such is the case with experimental
musician and Bridgetown Records gawd Kevin Greenspon.
His earliest material of guitar compositions were, to say
the least, incredibly harsh at times—just listen to anything from his
collection In Serial; a bulk of it
descends into horrific, cacophonic feedback and noise. I mean, for me, it’s great, because I like
that sort of thing. But it’s not for everyone.
Other pieces tried to rein that dissonance in a bit, folding
it into more ambient, and accessible soundscapes—peaking at this shift with
his early 2012 effort Maroon Bells.
Greenspon’s last solo effort, 2013’s Betrayed By The Angels saw him shifting away from any kind of
guitar work—ambient or otherwise—and favoring more cascading waves of
synthesizer tones. And, in a sense, “Happiness Pt. 2,” the first track on
Greenspon’s latest solo joint, To Leave A
Mark, is a natural extension of that sound. For 4 minutes, plaintive synth
melodies twinkle and shimmer around you. It’s charming, hypnotic, and its pattern of descending notes and sounds is catchy—something that, even in a
genre like “experimental” music, Greenspon has always been a pro at
incorporating.
However, To Leave A
Mark, is a major stylistic departure from anything else Greenspon has done
up until this point. “Happiness” is a bit of a false sense of security—it
soothes you, and lulls you in to what you think the tone of the rest of the
record is going to be.
The rest of To Leave A
Mark owes much to the early 90s techno and electronic landscape—still
focusing on a pop sensibility, but maintaining a cold, mechanical atmosphere
thanks in part to the synth propelled beats and sounds.
I suppose the weird sci-fi robot looking mannequin on the
front cover could have been a dead giveaway of the heavy emphasis on
technology.
To Leave A Mark is
an adventurous departure for Greenspon—and it’s not all unnerving beats and
skittering synth noises like on “Imprint Impulse” or “Lexical Trap.” There is
some warmth and comfort found on the album’s final two pieces—the slow rushes
“A Step Towards” and the title track both recall a similarly evoked feeling
from Greenspon’s best ambient guitar work; here, the execution is just performed
using a different instrument.
It’s an intriguing and restless balance that he strikes on To Leave A Mark. Greenspon has done a
little bit of everything since starting to release material in 2008; outside of
the ambient and harsh instrumental work that he’s primarily known for in the
underground tape label scene, he put out a split EP with Cloud Nothings,
comprised of lo-fi, fuzzed out, bizarre garage pop—a style he did revisit with
his friend Jon Barba on the 7” Already Dead
in 2012. After two years of relative silence and work on his label, releasing
myriad cassettes for others, it shows that as an artist, Greenspon is still
evolving with his peers, his own influences, and the times.
To Leave A Mark is out now on Bridgetown as a cassette, compact disc, or digital download.
To Leave A Mark is out now on Bridgetown as a cassette, compact disc, or digital download.
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