Double Leopards - Halve Maen (Eclipse)

Here’s a CD reissue for those who think Merzbow’s got the right idea but is too loud, Pelt is too folky, Stars of the Lid too precious and Sunburned Hand of the Man too abstract. Halve Maen has been lovingly transferred to CD by Eclipse as a miniature reproduction of the original vinyl, and both the music and the package are immensely satisfying.

New York’s Double Leopards inhabit a world of what might be described as comfortable darkness, and possess the ability to float fearlessly over an abyss. Familiar sounds are injected, often with force, but they remain somehow alien, existing within and just above the continuous and constantly morphing and expanding drone that pervades this double album. "The Secret Correspondence", the final, originally side-long composition (here broken into two tracks), exhibits definite references to free-jazz drumming, and the juxtaposition of conflicting traditions is surprisingly successful. "Druid Specter"'s sonic wash is replete with low piano tones and thudding percussion reminiscent of both early AMM and of Stockhausen’s 1950’s piano works, but again, the thick organ-like drone and scalar melodies render all else mysterious and somehow "other".

The notion of "otherness" or the uncanny seems both appropriate and deliberate. "Sound Holes", a brief but majestic opener, invokes the "floating anarchy" of the typical space-rock gestalt with synth swoops and swirls that simultaneously suggest popular science fiction or outer space as topos. Similarly, "Hemispheres in your Hair" conjures "jungle" percussion and the thrum of exotic birds and locusts, aided by yet another drone permutation.

The drone itself is never the cut-and-dry static accompaniment found in traditional North Indian music or in so many medieval western "classical" compositions. These are nebulous constructions, constantly swelling, distorting and shrinking, brimming with unidentifiable sounds that could be any combination of voices, flutes, cymbal washes, guitars and/or keyboards. In this case, the various indistinguishables enhance the beauty and serenity of the project as an indivisible unit, as a unified expanse of meditative space punctuated with brief silences.

As with the group’s concert recordings, each improvisation changes so gradually that a blow-by-blow would do the music an injustice. An appreciation of minimalism is most likely a prerequisite, but beyond that, Halve Maen should appeal to a wide variety of attentive listeners hungry for something beyond "indie". I hope that Eclipse will follow this welcome reissue with CD versions of the other Double Leopards albums.

~ Marc Medwin