Short Reviews [Jerry King and Bret Hart - 2021 - "Oblique Observations"]

Jerry King and Bret Hart are of course half of Moon Men, and here they are taking the experimentation and avant-garde RIO influences of that band into new areas. Although it may just sound in some instances as if some non-musicians have been handed some instruments and told to make a noise, the only way this style of avant-garde “music” can work is if those involved inherently know what they are doing and are willing to do whatever it takes to recreate the weird and strange alien world which exists only in their mind. For example, it would be easy on “Climbing The Glass Trellis” to concentrate on the repeated cymbal strikes or the noises in the foreground, but behind all of this is an incredibly fluid bassline which seems effortless, and it is this which holds the piece together, a framework for the chaos if you will. Some of the pieces have more melody contained within, some far less, yet undoubtedly this is an album which will polarise many listeners in that the vast majority will hear nothing of musical benefit within this, and those that do will rarely be able to explain why they feel attracted to it. So what if Hart and King are using “instruments” which are not normally deemed to be such, here combining the sounds being created in the wild to be further manipulated? Over the years I have found myself drawn more and more to the extremes of what can be defined as music, and that is again the case here with an album which is stretching those definitions, yet to my ears is still infinitely more enjoyable and interesting that what purports to be music in the popular charts. This is not for the fainthearted, and only for those who are interested in the more experimental forms, but to them, I suggest you give this a try on Bandcamp and join those of us who find this intriguing.