Keith Fullerton Whitman – Antithesis

Kranky

Well, I don’t hear a “lost krautrock classic,” though that phrase seems to be cycling through the blogs and reviews like a Manuel Göttsching guitar loop (and not just for this album; it’s appearing more and more in all kinds of guises – pretty sure it’s leaked malevolently into some of my reviews, so clearly I’m not immune; it’s a nasty little word virus) but neither is this slender little release like you (now) expect Keith Fullerton Whitman to be.

You’d need to rewind a little beyond the [post=fullerton-whitman-alien-radio-split-lp text=”recent excellent slabs of buttery modular electronics”] to get to where Keith’s coming from here, though these tracks are sort of leftovers from a number of years, shards and fancies mostly unrelated to electronics and instead built up of drones and clusters and scrapes (and scraps) from ‘real’ instruments, whatever that means to anyone these days. It’s not all drones, but everything builds and in places it’s serenely beautiful. This isn’t a release that will send you running to the racks for more KFW stuff but, if you’re a committed fan like me, it’ll ease the long passage until the next ‘proper’ album (due soon).

-Loki-