Steven R. Smith
Lineaments
Emperor Jones
A curious instrumental album from former Mirza front man Steven R. Smith, poised somewhere between hypnotic dreamscapes and dull elevator music. Repetitive structures are built around his basic set-up of keyboard and guitar, where the keys play simple, melancholic melodies under which electric guitars weave layers of white noise and frenzied lines either contrasting or complementing the main melodies.
On the most exciting tracks, he approaches something in the vein of post-kraut math-rock, for lack of any decent term, like Slint taking on Can. But far too often the tracks merely floats by, with little to help separate them from each other, and it is hard to maintain interest throughout. An uneven affair, but not without some finer moments.
