{"id":204,"date":"2010-04-07T06:26:09","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T11:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=204"},"modified":"2010-04-07T06:26:09","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T11:26:09","slug":"album-review-barry-cleveland-hologramatron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/07\/album-review-barry-cleveland-hologramatron\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Barry Cleveland – Hologramatron"},"content":{"rendered":"

One might not readily think that combining the genres of “protest music” and progressive rock would be a good fit. And perhaps in general they’re not: prog is more often than not about the music (rather than the lyrics), and the best protest music (Dylan, Phil Ochs<\/strong> et. al<\/em>.) often concentrated on the words to the ultimate detriment of melody.<\/p>\n

Guitarist Barry Cleveland<\/strong> tries to have it both ways on Hologramatron<\/em>, and he largely succeeds. Ominous arrangements that betray hints of everyone from Robert Fripp<\/strong> to Tool <\/strong>to (even) the Residents <\/strong><\/a>abound on the disc, but they’re somehow presented in an accessible fashion. By no means radio-friendly (for whatever that would be worth in this era, anyway), Hologramatron<\/em> is a treatise on narrow-minded politics, intolerance and the overarching influence of organized religion.<\/p>\n

Staking a position not far removed from Roger Waters<\/strong>‘ “What God Wants,” many of the songs on Hologramatron<\/em> feature the edgy vocals of Amy X Neuburg<\/strong>. Her approach combines a deftly-delivered torch-jazz style with a sung\/spoken Lou Reed<\/strong> kind of delivery, and it’s quite effective. The band does their thing right behind her, and while there’s a lot going on, the rubbery fretless bass and big-kit drumming are the most noticeable common elements.<\/p>\n

On the instrumental “You’ll Just Have to See it to Believe” Cleveland and his cohorts create a moody dreamscape. Subtle hints of Discipline<\/em>-era King Crimson<\/strong> (specifically “The Sheltering Sky”) flavor the track. Cleveland plays the new Moog <\/strong>guitar.<\/p>\n

“Warning” is a fitting title for the clattering, haunted house number that features menacing spoken word and what the liner notes call “chain link drums.”<\/p>\n

In a disc filled with memorable, effective original songs (nearly all composed solely by Cleveland), the two covers nonetheless deserve special mention. Malvina Reynolds<\/strong>‘ classic 1962 folk-protest anti-nukes song “What Have They Done to the Rain” is reinvented here full of Spector<\/strong>ian grandeur. The song’s sweeping arrangement makes a serious song feel almost celebratory.<\/p>\n

Joe Meek<\/strong><\/a>‘s “Telstar” gets an almost dance-electronica treatment. Though the signature melodic line is delivered intact, the instrumental backing transforms the pre-British Invasion hit into a rave number. Amy X Neuburg turns in a vocal line that will evoke comparisons to the Star Trek<\/em> theme. Which, come to think of it, may well have been influenced by the Joe Meek song to begin with.<\/p>\n

“Dateless Oblivion & Divine Repose” closes out the album proper with a soundscape built around Cleveland’s playing of something called a GuitarViol, which the press kit describes as “a hybrid bowed instrument tuned like a guitar.”<\/p>\n

Three remixes close out the album, and each reinvents the original enough to justify its inclusion on the disc.<\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, Hologramatron<\/em> is an effective collection\/synthesis of folk-protest song, rhythmic\/textural explorations, soundscapes and inventive reinterpretations of classic songs from half a century ago.<\/p>\n

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One might not readily think that combining the genres of “protest music” and progressive rock would be a good fit. And perhaps in general they’re not: prog is more often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}