David Grubbs - The Spectrum Between
(Drag City)
The cover art of David Grubbs' new album The Spectrum Between was made by
Cosima von Bonin and is a perfect synoposis of Grubbs' music on this release.
The art is a tapestry made of two large pieces of cloth with line drawings of
cowboys stitched in. From a distance (or at low resolution), the cowboys are
invisible, lost in the tan color field, the whole piece looking like
Barnett Newman-esque abstract art, but closer inspection shows involved
imagery. Such is Grubbs' music, the cowboy is there plucking his
acoustic guitar, singing his songs, but it is easy to lose sight of him by
only concentrating on the larger picture. With his previous work in Gastr del
Sol and as a solo artist, it is easy to only see Grubbs as part of the avant
garde, but here he is, writing his campfire songs for art galleries, urging
you to find the cowboy hidden inside.
As such, most of The Spectrum Between concentrates on the cowboy and his
guitar, using backing instruments only sparingly on the noninstrumental
songs. Grubbs' guitar and voice are powerful enough to create a wide expanse
of sound as he does in "A Shiver in the Timbre," but his songs sound much better
with backing musicians. Even the sole addition of John McEntire's drumming
is enough to make a good song sound great. An overly slowed down and sparse
guitar pluck opens "Show Me Who to Love," but as drums and voice enter the
mix the song's speed picks up tremendously, making it into a quite memorable
pop song. The glorious "Gloriette" takes this one step further, also starting
with an acoustic guitar solo. Drums are again added to turn the song pop,
but after Grubbs finishes the first refrain, a skronking sax and repetitive,
searing electric guitar enter, turning the song into the sort of barnburner you
would expect a 70s rock band to close an arena show with, all instruments
beautifully blaring.
Grubbs' lyrics are, as always, poetic. On this release, the meaning of his
words ranges from overt as in the Freudian analysis of love in "Show Me Who to
Love," to nonexistent as in utilitarian hodge podge of words used only for
phonetic appeal in "Two Shades of Green", to cryptic as in most of the other
songs on the album. His delivery of those words is a sort of passionate cool
with subtle changes in stress and intonation, using his voice truly like
an instrument as so few artists bother to do.
The cowboy is only fully hidden from view in the two of the nine songs
that are instrumentals. The first of these, "Stanwell Perpetual," is
a nice tweak of the dull drones Grubbs and Mats Gustafsson presented on
their collaboration last year. Gustafsson's invention, the fluteophone,
is still the lead here, swelling and wallowing on its one note, but much more
is happening around him than on their previous works (i.e., something
is happening). The second, "Preface," can be painful to listen to with its
organ and drum freakout after hearing 7 straight quiet, reserved, sparse songs,
but perhaps that is its intent.
Now that the cowboy has been fully unleashed, it is interesting to notice
how both Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke have moved more and more towards traditional
song structures since parting company. Because of this along with the increased
sparsity of the arrangements, The Spectrum Between is not as essential as
1998's The Thicket, but it is still wonderful listening.
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