THERE / NOT THERE

Aidan Baker is quite a prolific artist who's specialty is in manipulating music, expanding on styles that are well-used these days, like shoegaze, drones, electronic manipulation, ambient and other styles, to create some interesting, experimental soundscapes that definitely stretch genres to new territory. As a result, he has produced many albums over the years, not limiting himself to just one or two releases each year, but going far beyond that.

The album "There/Not There" is an example of this, in this case combining post rock, ambience, noise, drones and shoegaze to come up with this 3-part masterwork. For those that love exploratory and experimental music, this is a great album. As many times as not, Baker works with various musicians, while other times he produces all of the sounds and textures himself. On this album, he takes care of all of the guitars and vocals while guests Dana Schechter (bass) and Fiona McKenzie (drums) add their input as needed.

The title track "There/Not There" takes up the first half of the album at just over 20 minutes. This track begins softly and pensively, moving slowly to a slow and unassuming rhythm, building very slowly. The first part of this track takes it's time, yet has a nice melodic quality to it. There is a bit of a shoegaze vibe here, especially when his vocals kick in, softly, but not really buried in the mix. The slow build continues along with the vocals, but as the track reaches the 10 minute mark, the listener will notice that things are getting more and more intense, until a solid wall of sound shuts out the rhythmic pattern and a more droning style takes over, building layers upon layers of dark noise. This continues and follows right into the next track "(Found)", where this heaviness has reached its peak. The noise drone continues, but as it goes on, some texture starts to peek through the cacophony of noise, and there is a rather symphonic texture that somehow seems to pierce the wall of sound. The last track, "Paris (lost)" suddenly cuts out the noise as the music drops back to the ambient style again. The sudden change will probably evoke some kind of reaction from the listener as you feel relief from being freed from the solid noise. This track continues along with a pensive sound, the shoegaze more prevalent this time around. Vocals come back in on this track, the music will build a little, but stays far from reaching the pinnacle of before as it soon backs off again. The track ends the album in the same mood as it begins, ambient and pensive.

The music here is not the typical drone/shoegaze sound that you might usually associate with this kind of music. With this album, you get the professionalism and experience of a musician that really takes you on a voyage, not just following established styles as much as he pushes the boundaries of those genres. But you also feel like you are experiencing something when you listen to his music, and that is the case with this album. I wouldn't go so far as to call this essential, however, it is quite an excellent album especially with the territory it covers with these neo-genres that so many other artists are exploring, but when it comes to listening to Baker, there is no one that can take you on an actual journey like he does.