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Chris Brokaw
"I WAS BORN, BUT . . . "
(Atavistic)
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Local guitarist Brokaw, who is currently on a national solo tour, remains one of the hardest-working musicians in anti-show-business. Besides playing in Pullman, Consonant, and other outfits, and cutting excellent albums including 2001’s epic Red Cities (Atavistic) under his own name, the former Come co-leader has just turned in this soundtrack for filmmaker Roddy Bogawa’s exploration of his own formative years as an Asian-American punk-rocker. Rather than submit to punk’s loud and fast rules, Brokaw has composed music that’s the quiet, slowly evolving equivalent of Bogawa’s visual style. Sometimes it’s reminiscent of Hawaiian slack-key guitar, albeit played on electric. At others it splits the difference between the lapping sonic waves of Brian Eno’s ambient textures and the buzz-and-hum of early Throbbing Gristle, plying industrial melodies that would seem equally right on an assembly line or in a concert hall. The disc opens with "Reeperbah," an acoustic-guitar number with ringing arpeggios and a stately cadence, and finishes with "Friendly Eyes," a stuttering electric improvisation. But the journey between is pure Zen.
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