Bruce Anderson and Dale Sophia with Jim Hrabetin, Marc Weinstein, and Dave Mahoney - Medication
(FV8)
Medication starts off typically enough--three guitar chords rocking out, coated in delay but otherwise on the straight and narrow--only to be pulled underwater as a pillowed drone washes over, embellished by samples of a bell tolling methodically through the subtly shifting tide. Glancing at the song titles, it's "Euphoria" which bleeds right into "Ringing in the Ears" that leads off Medication, the new vial of mind-and-body altering compounds prescribed by M.D.'s Bruce Anderson and Dale Sophia (veterans of MX-80 and O-Type). Soundtracks to the various side effects of twelve controlled substances are doled out in large doses, and instantly I have become a quite eager test subject.
Joined by fellow white coats Jim Hrabetin on guitar and the team of Dave Mahoney and Marc Weinstein on drums, the time-tested team of Anderson and Sophia has constructed a dark, sublime album layered with nuanced intensity. Apparently this also marks the first recording in which Bruce Anderson spreads his tasty experimental guitar pate exclusively over the bass, but this fact is irrelevant in face of the group dynamic and the overall dramatic trips blanketing your brain throughout Medication. Each tune describes a different condition from drug ingestion, and each provides the music we all wish accompanied our own experiences. "Vivid Dreams" speaks in spooky tongues, tossing and turning through a sleepless night disrupted by ambient drones, phasing feedback, and creepy voice samples; "Exaggerated Feeling of Well-Being" surfaces like Amon Duul I dousing their communal tribal rhythms with Merlot and barbiturates; "Melancholy" simmers in the doldrums as depth tones, subtle cymbal caresses and plentiful delay effects ebb and flow in morose waves; "Decreased Production of Tears" loops bass through a quilt of samples as a voice intermittently inquires "have you taken your Medication?" Oh indeed, my synaptic highway is now blissfully rerouted!
Billing the artists here like a classic jazz quintet is perfect, for each entry in Medication was improvised in fine "free" tradition. Using rock instrumentation laced with copious effects and blanketing the whole shebang with loops and samples, Medication hazes over experimental electronica/ambient and avant rock's boundaries with inebriating drama. Your body chemistry may never be balanced again.
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