Fix It In Post (Live, 1997-2001)

by The Freight Elevator Quartet,
Cycling '74, San Francisco, CA, 2001
Audio CD, 14 tracks.
c74-o01

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium

stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be

The Freight Elevator Quartet started its improvisations in a... freight elevator in New York in 1997. They are: R. Luke Dubois max/msp programming, analog modular synths, guitar, bass, keyboard and effects; Paul Feuer didjeridoo, keyboards, synth bass and programming; Rachael Finn cellos and effects and Stephen Krieger beats, drum machines, keyboard, sampling and effects. DJ Spooky, Elliott Sharp, Jonathan Lee and Ken Thomson appear on some of the 14 tracks. The recordings were taken from four years of performance by the quartet. They chronicle the progression of their sound from the chaotic first freight elevator performance through their more recent work. Most of them are composites from different performances, some as many as three years apart.

"Our music is largely improvised, so no two shows are the same, and we tried to reflect the range of sound and styles in the composite tracks. As computers become so immersed in our cultural discourse that they become literally transparent, we're interested in highlighting the juxtaposition of technology with acoustical instrumentation and human improvisation, using electronics and computers in the framework of four people in a band performing on stage."

For afficionados of the quartet and its mild, unassuming, babbling sound this is probably a collector's item. And it probabaly has its archival value, but there is nothing really surprising or innovative on this cd. Timbres and colours are not unheard, rhythms are there just to make sure the audience doesn't forget there is music, samples are predictable and add practically nothing to the discourse, all the cliches of the synths are present and not even in an interesting combination. I wonder where the pretence comes from that this is 'highlighting the juxtaposition...' since there is no added value whatsoever

Track 7 is appropriately named 'How does it feel to be going out of style?' thus illustrating what the fashionable audience's most eistential fears are probably all about. Track 13 is "Excerpt from 'Berlin: Symphony of a Great City', written and recorded with dj Spooky. Now that looks promising! Surprise. It isn't. There is of course a drum box and some layers of sound Yes, there are.

In short, freight elevators could be put to better use.