NICK ROBINSON - Lost Garden
Discus: DISCUS126CD
Nick Robinson: guitar, effects
Recorded by Nick Robinson at Seaview Studios
Robinson is, of course, guitarist with Das Rad and their blend of avant-rock permeates the mood on this set. In isolation, Robinson layers his guitar sounds in ways that feel carefully and artfully organised and also freely spontaneous and unstructured. There is a richness in the crafting of the layers of sounds which is satisfying and also bursts of noise which startle and shock (and you get the impression that the startle and shock is not only felt by the listener but also Robinson – in a sort of ‘where did that come from?’ response to the some of the developments in the playing). I laughed out loud at his dedication, on the sleeve, to ‘the woman who approached me during a solo gig and politely asked me to turn down because she was trying to have a conversation’. While he modestly suggests in the liner notes that ‘everything you hear came from a guitar, suitably mangled’, this misses the care with which the tunes have been created and mixed. The mood of much of the set is one of calm deliberation (with the title ‘Acrostic’ being quite an apt metaphor, perhaps, for his method) but he is not averse to rocking out (particularly on the opening track). The gentle, melancholy of ‘Toccata Apologetica’, as its name implies, nicely capture’s his technique across several musical genres and using different guitar styles. Either side of this piece are ‘Cautious Tragic’ and ‘Three Vices’ in which the sounds generated by the guitar serve as input to slowly morphing pulses of sound that are sporadically interrupted by strummed chords or plucked arpeggios. My immediate impression of Robinson’s approach to playing, improvising and constructing his music was to see a synergy with Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, particularly albums like Spirit of Eden. This sentiment felt particularly apt when listening to ‘Silver Streams of Sorrow’ (although I also got a lot a Hawkwind references here… and not just form the word ‘silver’). Of course, the ‘garden’ theme might be throwing me but what I thought was going on was the same approach to stripping music back until all that remains is its essence. While Hollis worked with a wide range of instruments, Robinson is working with guitar and effects. Indeed, the effects themselves often feel quite low key, with some reverb and echo on most of the pieces and relatively spare use of the loop pedal or reverse audio of segments, allowing the guitar techniques to be clearly foregrounded. In all, a richly enjoyable album that has repaid plenty of repeated listenings.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Discus: DISCUS126CD
Nick Robinson: guitar, effects
Recorded by Nick Robinson at Seaview Studios
Robinson is, of course, guitarist with Das Rad and their blend of avant-rock permeates the mood on this set. In isolation, Robinson layers his guitar sounds in ways that feel carefully and artfully organised and also freely spontaneous and unstructured. There is a richness in the crafting of the layers of sounds which is satisfying and also bursts of noise which startle and shock (and you get the impression that the startle and shock is not only felt by the listener but also Robinson – in a sort of ‘where did that come from?’ response to the some of the developments in the playing). I laughed out loud at his dedication, on the sleeve, to ‘the woman who approached me during a solo gig and politely asked me to turn down because she was trying to have a conversation’. While he modestly suggests in the liner notes that ‘everything you hear came from a guitar, suitably mangled’, this misses the care with which the tunes have been created and mixed. The mood of much of the set is one of calm deliberation (with the title ‘Acrostic’ being quite an apt metaphor, perhaps, for his method) but he is not averse to rocking out (particularly on the opening track). The gentle, melancholy of ‘Toccata Apologetica’, as its name implies, nicely capture’s his technique across several musical genres and using different guitar styles. Either side of this piece are ‘Cautious Tragic’ and ‘Three Vices’ in which the sounds generated by the guitar serve as input to slowly morphing pulses of sound that are sporadically interrupted by strummed chords or plucked arpeggios. My immediate impression of Robinson’s approach to playing, improvising and constructing his music was to see a synergy with Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, particularly albums like Spirit of Eden. This sentiment felt particularly apt when listening to ‘Silver Streams of Sorrow’ (although I also got a lot a Hawkwind references here… and not just form the word ‘silver’). Of course, the ‘garden’ theme might be throwing me but what I thought was going on was the same approach to stripping music back until all that remains is its essence. While Hollis worked with a wide range of instruments, Robinson is working with guitar and effects. Indeed, the effects themselves often feel quite low key, with some reverb and echo on most of the pieces and relatively spare use of the loop pedal or reverse audio of segments, allowing the guitar techniques to be clearly foregrounded. In all, a richly enjoyable album that has repaid plenty of repeated listenings.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
