3 out of 5

Label: self-released?

Producer: Kenny Johnson

Hm.  The subtle art of pretty good.

I’m having trouble digging up too much info on Liquid Brick, but they were part of an Alabama music scene of which I’m slowly becoming aware, and according to their myspace page, were – “six guys, total improv.”  Well, I can’t claim to hear the manipulations of six gents on this 14 track something-or-other, but pumped right into your ears or played at loud volumes, the snippets or noise or handful of thuddling, rappling drum based tracks (yes, those terms are what we call “total improv”) slowly shift into shape, a roundabout path to form an album’s worth of sketches that form a drawing after all.  But I stress the volume – I was set to dispel this as interesting but fairly empty until I stopped leaving it in the background a turned the jam up while reading, while falling asleep.  It floats in and out of creepy, it scatters some elements that might be humorous about but never tips its hand even close to feeling silly.  Overall it’s still a very subtle collection, and wondering how six guys figure into this is more confusing than it should be, but there is a sense of ‘group’ to it that most solo noise-improv works can’t muster, though it has nothing to do with multiple elements going on – most tracks being built from one or two stripped down vague sounds that either hum for a minute or build and bridge into other sounds for 4 or 5 minutes – and more to do with the varied style of the subtleties and how they feel blended and not designed by one brain.

Of course, I’m making all of that up.

Interesting stuff, but nothing you can really ‘wow’ at without glueing your ear to your speakers.