CD Reviews

Growing | All the Way

Social Registry

By DEVIN KING | September 10, 2008

2.0 Stars

Guitar/bass duo Growing attempt to fit squarely into the “large amplifiers” side of the drone spectrum: the pair have been vocal about using no computers to create disparate washes of chord changes that curve in and out of rhythmic and harmonic stability and propel loud ambiance toward a unity that never quite arrives. And though the “real” instrumentation no doubt helps (crackling, overpowered equipment further unsettles a listener enraptured by the band’s repetitions), you get the sense that Growing have been looking more and more toward the other side of the drone spectrum — that of the tiny computer. I was tricked by the way the pulsating guitar on the opening “Green Flag” shifted through my speakers. Surely this must have been treated by beat-creating software in order to give the song a dance-floor swagger? No dice — the band note that it’s a guitar being sent through an old drum machine. But is there any real difference? Besides sounding more like laptoppers Fennesz and Tim Hecker than proto-drone cousins Sunn O))), All the Way even dips into the glorious filter sweeps of trance music, here twisted toward sonic decay rather than utopia.

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Topics: CD Reviews , Tim Hecker, Sunn O))), Devin King

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