3 out of 5

Label: Astral Spirits / Monofonus Press

Produced by: Luke Stewart

Reviews are obviously rather definitively subjective, but this one will be… especially so: partial drone, partial improv, partial ambience, Luke Stewart’s 2-track Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier is exactly what it’s title suggests, with the artist using these tools across longform tunes, in a cross-section of loose and relatively composed compositions.

My tastes in drone are not yet fully formed, though, making my love of the first half of this feel somewhat random: the 29-minute Pt. 1 is all drive, and has structure that, in my experience, seems rare for this genre, with amp sounds shimmering slowly into aural view until about the twelve minute mark, at which point you realize the squiggly, string-vibrating sound is the bass coming onto the scene, which starts to full take over; we break, with the cycle starting again, but the instrument-focus reversed.

It’s brilliant, it’s unsettling, and it never feels without purpose. Not that drone needs to have that, but I do like to feel more and more immersed as a song goes along, and this has that, alongside the emotional hook of the building disarray of the sounds.

Pt. 2 initially seems more direct, hitting on a bass groove early on and just committing to actual notes in a way Pt. 1 pretty much fully avoided. This is nice and distinct. Unfortunately, subjectivity again comes in: Pt. 2 is really a triptych of tunes, all similarly bass-led, but there’s nothing really linking them (one ends, the next starts), and I don’t get nearly as much sense of sound interplay as Pt. 1. So I probably would’ve received these better if the parts were represented as subtitles, or separate songs. I realize these are the kind of details that get less distracting once you know what to expect, but after a few listens, I still couldn’t connect with Pt. 2’s start-and-stop vibe, and comparative thinness of sound. The latter is really the important bit for me, as Pt. 1 is so grabbing that even when you know the change is coming, it’s hard not to feel let down.

Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier is nonetheless a lot more than I would’ve expected from a one-man project, and another example of Astral Spirits digging out some interesting artists / works I know I would’ve passed by otherwise.