For his last three albums, Kyle Bobby Dunn has exercised his propensity to color in the barest canvases with faint glimpses of plush strings and guitar, composing pieces that can seem teeming at one moment and desolate at another. At this point it's given him the ability to stretch this capability over the course of a double-album, thus leaving us with Bring Me The Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn, his second double-disc CD release on Low Point and the most cohesive of the two.
Contemporaries like Celer bear similar prowess, but Dunn most clearly cites the Sam Peckinpah film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia as an influence for, as Low Point states, the film's "sheer grit and humanism" in how little synthesis (if not, none) touches his vast arrangements. Any other two-hour affair would be tainted by its own consistency, but Dunn alternates between expanse and relative vignettes, rendering each subtle variation a considerable departure.
For what may be the first time, Dunn has swapped exploration in timbre with fluctuation in form. This is even visible in the tracklist of the first disc, which sways from tracks under to over 10 minutes. Though his lengthier efforts slowly descend into ambrosial vibration, textures woven through brevity, such as the string bends and resonant strikes in "Ending of All Odds" or "The Troubles with Tres Belles"'s rich plangency yield prominent activity. Dunn's meticulous craft has resulted in one of his most formidable releases yet.
Bring Me The Head is a glacial process of immersion, even when attuned to Dunn's minimalism. Unlike more pressing efforts, including the sublime "Canyon Meadows" from last year's Ways of Meaning or the cavernous "I'm Gonna Run To You" from 2007's Six Cognitive Works, his latest calls for patience and rarely stirs before the end of its first half. While others speak in full-bodied orchestration, Dunn articulates with delicacy, compelling the ear to lean inward.
[Kyle Bobby Dunn Website]
[Stream/Buy Bring Me The Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn from Low Point]
No comments:
Post a Comment