Random Touch
A True Conductor Wears a Man
Token Boy
In the press release for Random Touch’s A True Conductor Wears a Man, much is made of the group’s musical pedigree. With all three members beginning their schooling (or self-teaching) in the realms of free jazz roughly 40 years ago, their resumés run deep. But sadly, this doesn’t translate to an even slightly engaging album.
The band’s compositions are quick, three-to-four minute drones and restrained noise, all coated in a layer of cheesy effects as strong as a ’70s planetarium soundtrack. The theoretically unintentional retro sheen on every keyboard riff and guitar line makes it endlessly difficult to listen to as something progressive. The tacked-on spoken word passages delivered with supreme affectation and cloaked in a fog of echo don’t sharpen the picture, either. With a plethora of interesting improvisational/experimental music coming from so many outlets (Soft Abuse Records and Constellation Records to name two), Random Touch’s work feels like a throwback to an era when most experimental music was, by definition, ponderous and pretentious. Pass on this one.
Random Touch: http://www.randomtouch.com
