audiversity.com

10.26.2007

Prefuse 73 - "Preparations"/"Interregnums"



Prefuse 73 - Pomade Suite Version One (WARP 2007)

Prefuse 73 - Spacious and Dissonant Part 2 (WARP 2007)

Prefuse 73 – Preparations/Interregnums / WARP

I haven’t been short on my unabashed love for Guillermo Scott Herren here on the site. He is up there on my all-time list of favorite contemporary artists with a discography that runs amuck through a number of different monikers and a style that is both instantly recognizable and fluidly morphing with each release. The biggest problem critics have with Herren, at least in his Prefuse 73 suit, is that his pioneering and perfecting glitch-hop approach to producing has a defined, predictable framework though the creative possibilities within the stylistic confines can go on for days.

Let’s face it, he peaked early, first with 2001’s genre changing Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives and then 2003’s career-defining One Word Extinguisher. It’s not that Herren has run out of creative ideas, just check one of his other monikers: Savath y Savalas, Delarosa & Asora, A Cloud Mireya, Piano Overlord or La Corrección. It’s that from the listeners’ point-of-view, improving upon those first two releases is near impossible. He has certainly tried though; first attempting to push his own creative boundaries by crafting an album of all collaborative efforts, 2005’s somewhat underappreciated Surrounded by Silence, and then heading in 180 degrees back to the Prefuse 73 roots for 2006’s mini-LP Security Screenings. Both were bashed or ho-hummed by the majority of the critics, first for not staying true to the instrumental glitch-hop he ushered in, and then for being too predictable with his beatwork by returning to just that. Goddamn we are hard to please.

So what the hell is Herren to do next? If he can honestly not improve upon his first few productions, what’s the point in going on as Prefuse 73? He certainly has enough other outlets to still be releasing quality music (for example, Savath y Savalas was signed by the venerable Anti- Records for their last album), but that pretty much would be conceding to an increasingly fickle society of music lovers/haters whose current pedestals are only raised for a manner of seconds before their champions come clamoring back down to earth with near-unachievable expectations (this includes us obviously). Personally, I wouldn’t give us the satisfaction of quitting, no matter what the unkind reactions may be. Herren doesn’t either, and Preparations finds his Prefuse 73 personality both remaining true to his game and then turning heads by displaying his compositional skills in their naked glory.

Setting aside the “bonus disc”, Interregnums, for now, Preparations itself is the album I believe most fans were looking for as One Word Extinguisher’s follow-up. The exact definition of glitch-hop, Herren does what he does best: splices rap beats within a skittering skeleton of IDM, downtempo, broken beat and of course glitch while filling that framework with masterfully sequenced melodic samples. In fact, this album may be the most organic and melodic disc of the Prefuse 73 discography as the sound is not quite as urgent or rap-based and heavy on the classical-leaning acoustic instrumentation like strings, piano and xylophone.

Ignoring the lead single featuring Brooklyn psyche-poppers School of Seven Bells, “The Class of 73 Bells”, which we covered extensively on the teaser EP review, the strongest tracks on Preparations are held in the last quarter of the album. “I Know You Were Gonna Go” is made up of a barrage of undeterminable vocal samples that Herren weaves into the song’s continuously morphing melody overtop of a snare-heavy broken beat and ping-ponging pulses of static. That is followed by maybe the album’s strongest track “Pomade Suite Version One.” The beat stays similar from the previous song, but is now laced nearly unrecognizable beat-boxing, a series of glitchy and vocal loops, wisps of strings and xylophone and a free-jazzy baseline. The track never sits still, dropping into a groove for a matter of seconds before Herren manipulates and skews it and then scrapping it all together for the next. Though verging on overindulgence, the six-minute song contains more interesting, disectable moments than most albums do in their entirety. “Spaced + Dissonant” features Herren’s more laidback style as he opts for a more sparse beat and a stronger string presence. Once again, he chops samples of a female coos into fragmented melodies that are near inimitable. And finally, “Preparation Outro Version” is made up of pulsing pings surrounded by a myriad of stuttering ambient noises and free percussion, both acoustic and electronic. It ends unassumingly, but perhaps because there is still more to come.

Sadly deemed only as a “bonus disc”, Interregnums is made up of the orchestral backdrops Herren would eventually chop to pieces for Preparations, but presented here in fleshed-out, fully realized pieces. It is certainly not the first time we have heard this sort of sound from Herren, see especially the Savath y Savalas EP, The Rolls and Waves, and to an extent, the ambient tour only compilation, Sleeping on Saturday and Sunday. For the most part, he had just buried these compositional talents beneath more popular beat-oriented tracks, but showcasing them in their fully bloomed form was an excellent move to reclaim some of the intrigue of his once highly heralded reputation. Interrgnums begins nearly all orchestral: swelling strings, sweeping clarinets, resonant piano melodies and pinging xylophones. But as the album advances, more and more ambient electronic elements begin to accentuate the tracks. The most impressive number, “Spacious and Dissonant Part 2”, utilizes choir-like chants with pulsing orchestral melodies before breaking down the song with almost free jazz like outbursts and staticy electronic flares. Harking back to his early Delarosa & Asora moments, it reminds us that Herren started his career as an avant-garde electronica producer before grasping a hold of glitch-hop. At 52 mintues in length, it’s hard to consider Interregnums as just a bonus disc. There are moments of pure emotion, such as the all string composition “Over Ensembles”, and then moments that are a bit more trying, like when the swelling strings meet microscopic glitch during “The Ground We Lift.”

While Preparations is the main product here, it was an excellent strategic move for Herren to package in Interregnums, though labeling it as a “bonus disc” is a bit baffling. Alone, Preparations is another strong Prefuse 73 outing, but unsurprising if you have been a long time fan. Herren has not lost a step by any means, and his glitch-hop endeavors are still the peak of the stylistic niche, but being somewhat pigeonholed by his sound-concentrated monikers, it makes it much easier for most people to just write it off as another Prefuse 73 album. Interregnums is a much more intriguing album though, but mostly because it catches you off guard. Herren’s compositional skills are much more developed then he may let on, and it is a gorgeous 52 minutes of introspective music. The question that remains is exactly what Herren is “preparing” for as the album title suggests. Could this be the beginning of the end for Prefuse 73? As a listener whose tastes were widely expanded by being exposed to Herren’s music some five years ago, I hope not. But if it is the only way for the talented composer to further mature his music, then let’s do it; I’m excited to see where he leads me next.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

are you excited..really?

mpardaiolo said...

yes i am.

Anonymous said...

thats fantastic.