Tom White would have it that he is a guitar experimentalist. The range of his manipulations and the extent of diffusion of sound sources and concepts make this “identifying through sound device” slightly obsolete. As with a good deal of drone works, guitar manipulation, feedback, extension though device and software, holds a base for the musician. Often it seems to be dub’s revenge on guitar heads, warping the shoegazers into a sonic dystopia. Another entrance could be from the Tibetan bowl drone sphere, which takes the meditative stance of the aural as inducing brain states for contemplation. I would prefer to wrap White’s work up in the latter as a reference to the positive listening experience the album presents.
That is, if you consider your music in terms of aural painting and non-linear narratives, which is generally what the tracks present; a constructed scene of sound that reflects both the environment of the musician/listener and foregrounding the act of performance. The performance being a presentation of elements of sound and techniques welded into sonic displays of shimmer and static overplaying a background melancholy. Melancholy as an emotive state is often a signifier for the more contemplative and thought out, however the aural representation of this mind state is one that musicians of White’s calibre have a good grasp on.
A more descriptive approach to the album would echo the release notes describing it as “improvisations with dictaphone tape collage, mic feedback, fragments of guitar and found sounds”. Stylistic words to create interest would be: glitch, ambient, drone, bright melancholy, sonic sculpture. A note may be given that this is White’s first album after two EPs: its achievement in echoing the state of play in experimental music is more of a judgement call.
Innerversitysound
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