Anthony Guerra/Paul Hood/Joel Stern - Low Resistance Group

Anthony Guerra/Paul Hood/Joel Stern
Low Resistance Group
Para
PACD012

Recorded in November 2002, the three fine Australian musicians responsible for this album have all progressed notably in the interim. Nonetheless, the six improvisations herein have their moments and, with the advantage of hindsight, lay something of the base for more recent activity. Guerra (on guitar), Hood (turntables, amplified objects, mixer) and Stern (field recordings, contact mics, electronics) are well positioned to construct dense sound assemblages, Guerra often (as is his tendency) providing some tonal leavening amongst the noise. The opening track, in fact, has a good deal in common with some of his solo work, backwards guitar (if I’m not mistaken), coursing through the gritty, debris-strewn soundscapes evoked by his colleagues. Along with the fifth track (all untitled), it’s the most strikingly successful, combining sonic richness with an implied propulsion. I’ve been a sucker for this direction before and I remain so. However, it’s the sort of music I prefer to enjoy on a longer scale. Here, the shorter improvisations cast a somewhat constrained feeling over the disc, lending it more the air of a sampler than of a cohesive statement, something that’s never been a problem with releases from the same group of musicians, in varying contexts, on their own Twothousandand label. Several of the remaining tracks are harsher and more fragmentary, for this listener’s taste an area where they’re a smidgen less effective, sounding not very distinguishable from the work of others in similar territory. I continue to have the impression that their underlying lyricism, however masked or buried, is one of the great strengths of this cadre of improvisers. This includes Stern’s choice of field recordings which often possess an uncanny and unsettling beauty akin to those of Toshiya Tsunoda. Any misgivings I have are not so much about the music itself, much of which is excellent, but simply that the musicians involved have moved on considerably in the relatively brief interval between recording session and release and I’m much more keen to hear what they’ve done this past summer than two years ago. Low Resistance Group (I’m unsure, incidentally, whether this is just the title of the disc or the working band name) is still worth hearing, however, even if the ground covered will be familiar to fans of the individuals involved.

~ Brian Olewnick