Seaver & Witscher – Country Music

Jeff Witscher’s (Rene Hell, et al) Salon imprint has seen a number of stellar CD-Rs appear this year, most notably the Samantha Vacation release that dropped in January. Daryl Seaver is the mastermind behind that project, producing slabs of damaged rhythms that are both aligned with dance forms and structurally unique. She and Witscher have joined forces for Country Music, a relatively short series of sonic vignettes that was apparently conceived as the result of listening to contemporary country music. Very sparse droplets of piano are heaved onto a vocal sample that must have been smeared through the algorithmic equivalent of a slide whistle. This piece evades capture, and eventually dissolves into a frenetic series of chime-like blasts. A pair of voices exclaiming “diggy” in a variety of pitches is underpinned by a low-lying melody and bursts of static before giving way to an appealing sequence of computer-generated notes. The re-appearance of piano, this time accompanied by clacking wooden percussion and a hint of static, serves to accentuate the compositional nature of this too-short disc. It is as enigmatic a release as it is thoroughly addictive to listen to, with each subsequent spin revealing a new subtlety previously unperceived.

Head over to the Salon website to get your ear canals cleaned by Seaver & Witscher.