Tim Barnes - (2020) De∆d-Loop LP

 

Amish Records ‎– AMI-038 R/W

 Tim Barnes’ latest full-length: DE∆D-LOOP (AMI 038R/W), is his first solo release since 2002’s All Acoustics. DE∆D-LOOP offers another arm in Barnes’ wide-ranging body of music and work, as well as supplying an additional thread connecting the House, pop and sound art conversations the album engages.

In many ways DE∆D-LOOP is House music that takes a sideways approach to the language of dance music. As both a concept and a practice, Barnes aims to turn House on its side, reconsidering its structure and form. The tracks on DE∆D-LOOP reflect Barnes’ status as a renowned percussionist, offering rhythms and textures that both draw the listener in and maintain a spatial and temporal distance/uncertainty. This distance can best be heard on the quiet closing track “NAKU,” but also in the hyperactive and layered percussion of “AEMO” and “GUALA.” This record isn’t all concept, however, as the lead off tracks “HORNA” and “KONQR” sound like something you might hear at rave, albeit standing outside the club in the middle of day after everyone has crashed. The foggy celebration continues on this record, however; listen to “JAPE” and its play with language, cracking words open and hearing what comes out of the space between syllable and sound.

Since 1995, Tim Barnes has been internationally acclaimed as a musician, having played with a range of artists including Tony Conrad, Ikue Mori, Sonic Youth, Glenn Kotche, P.G. Six, Mike Watt, Royal Trux, Stereolab, Jim O’Rourke, Beth Orton, among others. Barnes has most recently become known for his radical site-specific sound art duo with Jeph Jerman (Erstwhile, IDEA Intermedia, Feeding Tube). Working across both genre and instrumentation, Barnes’ singular history as a musician reflects his versatile ear and performance range.

Barnes has also done important research and work as an archivist and engineer, most notably through his Quakebasket-imprint. Quakebasket made available and distributed the work of artists like Henry Flynt, Pandit Pran Nath, Christopher Tree and, most notably, Angus MacLise. In looking forward, Quakebasket released music by Michael J. Schumacher, Tetuzi Akiyama, Sarah Hennies, and Valerio Tricoli, among many others.

DE∆D-LOOP is the latest installment of Amish’s in-house label Required Wreckers, pairing music and sound art with visual artists who share a thematic or process-based methodology. DE∆D LOOP features the work of American-born and French-based artist/filmmaker Erick Baudelaire’s Blind Walls series.