Uncle E. - Deep in the Bushes

Antboy 08

Having never previously heard Timothy Pledger’s music in any of its incarnations, notably as leader of the band Bohjass, I had certain inevitable preconceptions upon initially unwrapping this disc. Between the moniker “Uncle E.” and the pose struck by Pledger on the disc’s cover, I was expecting, shall we say, music with a more aggressively rhythmic character. Nope.

Uncle E. is apparently Pledger in his more minimal, even ambient persona. For this disc, he’s taken samples of what seems to be a pretty small section of some music from Bohjass (“deep in the woods” from the album, “high st…3070”), reworking and remixing it into a smooth stew. The central material is a slow wind motif with flutes and saxes predominant. I pick up a faint hint of South African jazz chorales of the type that might have been played by the Brotherhood of Breath, though that may be entirely coincidental. On the first track, this theme is stated calmly and quietly, bathed in fuzzy atmospherics. On the next one, memorably titled, “deep in the bushes the angry penguins warbled”, dub-like bass, softly splashing cymbals and backwards tape washes are introduced, propelling the music more swiftly downstream, though still at a relaxed pace. It’s an infectious piece, with a super-saturated sound quality, and you’re drawn along pretty irresistibly though, depending on your tolerance of the basic sameness for the duration, you may find it goes on somewhat long. This criticism might be extended to the next two tracks as they occupy territory only tangentially different from track two. The third, “deeper”, has a more muffled, hazier aspect with the winds sublimated. It’s a remix, in other words and, while basically equally as enjoyable as the previous track, a slight sense of “more of the same” sets in. Maybe not, though. More so than many discs I’ve heard recently, I find my reaction to this one varying with my mood. There have been several occasions where the music’s dreamy, floating nature has been just the thing. On “the deeper they go”, the horns re-emerge, the ringing echoes that have been lurking for a while start asserting themselves more strongly but we’re essentially still at the same bend in the river, just gleaned through a different filter.

Things take an intriguing turn, though, on the final cut, “deepend”. While the source material is the same, it’s both pared down a bit sonically, probably closer to its original sound and, interestingly, is presented in more or less identical segments lasting a bit over a minute that abruptly cut out then reappear, repeating this cycle six or seven times. It produces a rather disquieting sensation, as though one is startled awake from a dream, falls back asleep into the same dream, reawakens, etc. Pretty cool.

http://www.antboymusic.com/