Brain McBride - The Effective Disconnect [Kranky - 2010]Brian McBride, inside and outside of his main project, Stars of the Lid, has long been a master of the deceptively passive soundscape. This particular album "The Effective Disconnect" differs from past works in that it is a compilation of music composed for a documentary entitled "Vanishing of the Bees", but sonically and creatively little has changed. The slow pacing, wet orchestral timbres and massive scope of his work in Stars of the Lid are undoubtedly intact. If you're one of those who has begun to tire of this unique yet often repetitious group's sound, well... you probably just haven't listened enough. Admittedly, Stars' work seemed like little more than relaxing background sound to me for years after I first heard it, but time has revealed their genius to me. Here as in the past, this Texas based musician truly stands apart from the pack through the sheer depth of his work, which is clearly through-composed in the classical sense, rather than created by improvisation, looping, or any other typical technique used by ambient musicians. Lazily sublime warm brass chorales mingle with an intimate, liquid string section and deep, subtely electronic bass drones. The rich, consonant harmonies are something to be analyzed. Tracks like "Toil Theme Part 3" may primarily be simple alternations of a couple of chords, but the chords themselves are dense and lovingly orchestrated, and each is capable of imparting great meaning to the attentive listener.
It is with no urgency that these compositions reveal their messages. There is so much space in McBride's music that it is often difficult to grasp any song as a whole. Admittedly, on more than one occasion, I've forgotten the chord previous by the time the next swells out of the quietude. Free from textual or concrete associations, this album has an emotional universality which would make it ideal music for a great many nature films, but also it makes it hard to hold in the memory. It exists on the boundary between states of mind and concepts, and so makes a marvellous canvas for the reveries of the listener to play upon.
McBride consents to play a melody every once in a while, and I find myself wanting more. The so-wet-it's-underwater piano playing at the end of "Girl Nap" is quite gorgeous and emotionally naked, and the percussive chiming that begins "Beekeepers vs Warfare Chemicals" is a nice flourish. More moments like this could have made it easier to tell tracks apart without damaging the atmospheric consistency of the music.
In conclusion, the slow-motion grandeur and intensity of Stars of the Lid endures on in this solo project by Brian McBride. "The Effective Disconnect" is neither a deviation from his past work nor one of his greatest achievements, but it's a solid album that makes a perfectly adequate key into this man's universe. Even if the emotional impact of this album is somewhat less than that of the mammoth double album "And Their Refinement of the Decline" or "The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid", it is a wonderful listening experience, great for anyone who wishes to find a relaxed, thoughtful and sentimental place.
   Josh Landry
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