5 out of 5

Label: VHF

Produced by: Sunroof!

The best of the best.  Matthew Bower makes noise under several names, and it can be aggressive, or creepy, or mysterious, or… if not soothing, exactly, then open.  It’s not wandering, to me, in the same sense as other improv-esque incarnations: there’s something always mindful happening in Bower’s compositions.  You can never not be aware they’re playing.  Sunroof! was my first exposure to the man and remains my favorite version of his style.  The group makes an incredibly dense sound that rarely settles into a distinct vibe or theme, though when you have a large batch of it together, as on this two disc set, you can set your own story or ideas to what’s happening.

Delicate’s first disc is the noisier of the two, opening with a ‘traditional’ Sunroof! blast of god-knows-what on the 7-minute Misty Spring Morning before a bit of whimsy via a rare appearance of discernible vocals (just chanting, mind you) appears on Valentine.  The disc trades off these styles for some tracks before the aggression explodes in the massive 26 minute Silver Pennies.  And if you’re a Sunroof! fan (and why else would you be here), this track is an elevation of all things: percussive madness chopping atop the noise dismissing any previous sense of peace.  The disc fittingly ends with the burbling comparative quiet of The Last Lemur.

The second disc is a feedback and static drenched affair, much calmer for its first few tracks – Schooner Trapper in Ice, Grey Felt Village, Prince of Thieves #2.  Drive By #1 arrives with a bit of danger, and urgency, nowhere near the noise of disc 1 but a nice tonal shift that sets us up for the downright musical and nigh-beautiful 12 minute Shiney Tunnel.  The double disc set then ends somewhat as it begins, with the final tracks picking back up on that ‘traditional’ sound again (which is hard to describe but imagine something a step below noise, though clearly comprised of instruments).

Delicate Autobahn is an early effort from ‘Roof!s career, but from someone as prolific as Bower, that’s no indication of a lack of quality.  If you’ve never heard the group before but are down with like-minded but slightly folkier outfits like Vibracathedral, there are some more condensed Sunroof! efforts (like Cloudz) that are perhaps better starting points.  But once initiated, DAUC is a must, showcasing the range and power of the group’s output.