BROKEBACK
Morse Code in the Modern Age: Across the Americas
Thrill Jockey
· Brokeback is the domain of Noel Kupersmith and Tortoise’s Douglas McCombs.
· Instrumental album features two ambient improvs and a playful cover of Roy Orbison’s "Running Scared" with Calexico, and is "enhanced" with two movies.
The first several times I listened to the new Brokeback release, I found it obscure, impenetrable, even a little dull. But one night listening to the disc on headphones as I wandered the streets of my neighbourhood, I discovered the perfect way to be immersed in the band’s expansive, ambient soundscapes.
Suddenly, with all other sounds obliterated, the average goings-on of a typical night in the inner-city suburbs (what else does Calgary have?) were elevated from the ordinary to the ominous. Brokeback’s pulsating, feedback-drenched, electro-acoustic improvisations transformed Cowtown banality into something eerie and disturbing enough to make David Lynch envious. And while I normally have no inclination to publicly declare my enthusiasm for peeping Tomism, I have to say that the movies on this enhanced CD are not nearly as interesting an accompaniment to this music as those images that might be unwittingly provided by neighbours through a picture window with the drapes pulled open.
Now... aren’t you glad you don’t live on my street?
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