200 Words: MACHINE LISTENER
(In 200 Words, we highlight a new record we like a lot, via a 200-word review by Marc Masters and 200 words (or so) from the artist about whatever they choose.)
MACHINE LISTENER - Endless Coil LP (Tusco/Embassy Press)
One thing I’ve always loved about Terry Riley, and what helps distinguish his music from the other big names of his time (Young, Reich, Glass, etc), is the way it seems to bubble. There’s a continual push and pop of air inside his sound, giving it a watery perpetual motion that appears to be composed of different chemical material than that of any other minimalist. Matthew Gallagher manages to capture a similar bubbling on his new LP Endless Coil, in two side-long pieces that course and throb and generally burst into the air as if that were their God-given calling.
Endless Coil does a lot more than that too – it builds patient arcs, creating drama like a well-crafted narrative and developing freely like a jungle plant – but still, I’ll take the bubbling. Just listen to the stretch about five minutes into Side B, wherein static pulses merge with string-like sawing and, eventually, space-warped waves in a way that makes the entire piece sound like it’s helping rotate the earth. That may seem overly grandiose, but Endless Coil certainly feels like its own world once you’ve stepped inside it, and that’s a trip I plan to take quite frequently.
– Marc Masters
MATTHEW GALLAGHER on Endless Coil
In 2014 I had some formative experiences in the West Virginian wilderness. Watching a black bear cub running through a field, venturing into the woods late at night and listening to the business of millions of nocturnal organisms, 100 foot tall trees blanketed with lightning bugs, a face-to-face meeting with a deer in a barn... The filters imposed by civilization on perception were greatly reduced. I remember looking up at the night sky and seeing a divine geometric organization in the stars. Even if only an illusion, I could see the universe accelerating in all directions. For the first time I could truly begin to address the vastness of the cosmos. Death was ever present in the woods in a far less abstracted manner than in the city. The dualistic nature of life and death seemed to erode once surrounded by such rich biodiversity and I began to believe that dichotomous relationship artificial. These experiences broke my ego in a necessary and religious manner. It was imperative to develop a practice for worshipping them. My synthesizer became a tool of prayer, each patch an environment to live in. This record is my way of sharing them.
Endless Coil is out now on Tusco/Embassy Press. Buy it here.`
