Just as there are never crests without troughs in a wave, the knotty, gnarled folk music of Tom Fazzini exhibits the fact that opposing elements are at the same time inseparable. Not only do the outlandish field recordings of creaking floorboards and shrill laughter mesh with the somber finger-picked guitar passages, but they do so in a personal, significant manner, conveying a sincere concern for the ardent assemblage of parts. The result is a sonic patchwork in the truest sense of the word: one is offered very specific, seemingly insignificant fragments of song, slivers of spiked noise, flashes of growling drones, glimmers of melodic modesty. The unabashed mellowness of the guitar and the hushed tone of Fazzini’s voice could easily have been left to their own devices, but Fazzini sees to it that these elements tread softly through spangly textures, the light gurgle of water, and a pasture of quickly gliding strings. In so doing, he has forged an album that is elusive in its basic simplicity, and endearing in its quaintness.
Everywhere, a strong spatial domain is erected. Although the guitar sometimes tweaks out in feedback, often it is content to craft smooth, yet resonant melodies. In like manner, though it reaches now and again for a strained falsetto, Fazzini’s voice is generally a scratchy, lazy murmur. In this way, by placing these two largely static elements against a background that is constantly changing, the effect is that one feels a passenger whirling through space, awestruck by unfolding details that change color, grow dimmer, and die away. This ride is kept from inducing nausea by the fact that, underneath all of the percolating details, these are fundamentally humble pop songs.
As the album fades out of sight, though, these songs prove a trifle too fleeting insofar as they fail to leave a firm, lasting impression. Notably, the field recordings of old English gentlemen ruminating on their lives, though successful in creating a mood of some substance, sometimes outweighs other aspects whose presence might have enabled one to draw more sap from these subtly defined structures.
