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WEST040 | Bexar Bexar - Tropism Leaving
behind the repetitious loops and percussion of Haralambos, Bexar Bexar's
new album, Tropism, relies primarily
on acoustic guitar.
A few simple acoustic recordings served as the source material, which
would be chopped, stretched, processed, and filtered.
One guitar note became a tree full of cicadas, while another transformed
into a deep oceany drone.
Ultimately each recording was deconstructed and used to reconstruct
something completely new.
Far more complex and subtle than Haralambos, Tropism slowly
reveals its intricate details over multiple listens. - |
||
| | QUOTES | | |||
| - | |||
| "Many of the songs have this feeling that's hard to describe but so satisfying to hear: like a sadness that's been buried and you're soldiering quietly on, and not making a show of it. The spare, lovely melodies swell and recede, all with perfect precision and tremendous understated feeling. How this music can be so emotional without ever getting sentimental or corny is completely beyond me" | |||
| – Ira Glass, This American Life | |||
| - | |||
| "A sadness pervades much of the material (“The Messy Message,” “Sweet Devil”), lending it an affecting gravitas, while shimmering settings like “Window Piece” and “Unsettled and Unstable” are about as lovely and tranquil as pastoral ambient music gets.” | |||
| – Textura [read full review here] | |||
| - | |||
| "It's Bexar's skill in treading the line between the evocative and the universal that makes Tropism seem more engaging than 37 minutes of aparent tranquility should: less a still life than a blank canvas for the mind." | |||
| – WIRE [read full review here] | |||
| - | |||
| "These ten songs are acoustic palms; prayers, unbelievable and quaint, that haunt the conscious; unreal and empty. Yet each one, every last enduring moment of each note, hope and reverie, simply has to be… Such frailty is indescribable. Listen. Just…listen." | |||
| – Silent Ballet [read full review here] | |||
| - | |||
| “A a purely emotional world filled with hidden memories, lost hopes, and a faint sadness that pervades it all. It is easy to see how comparisons are constantly made to the ambient work of Brian Eno, as well as the strange and wonderful instrumentals of Mum and even Mogwai....It is a beat-less but constantly swirling collection of sounds and motions that ends up stirring the hearts and minds of its listeners a little more than the rump-shaking beats of similar artists like Prefuse 73 or FourTet." | |||
| – Indieworkshop [read the full review here] | |||
| - | |||
| Additional reviews can be found at Go Mag! and Cyclic Defrost. | |||
![[read full review here]](Bexar_Wire283.jpg){kind=link}