Eric Glick Rieman
In My Mind, Her Image Was Reversed
Accretions
Even if you don’t get the record, click on the link and take a look at Mr. Rieman. If there ever was an Experimental Musician look, this guy has it nailed. And as for his music, well, it certainly sounds experimental. In this seven-song project, he focuses on small industrial sounds: sandpaper buffing, pulleys scuffing against safety guards, mysterious clatters, multi-tone annunciators, pretty much anything in the McMaster-Carr catalog that can be hit on anything else.
“Forgetting Belief” opens with a wheezy, mechanical chant over a subtle bass note lathered with 60 cycle hum. Soon the pace accelerates with the sanding sound, only to stop and start over. It’s calming – calming in the way that wood working or vacuuming can be when you know it needs to be done, and you’re doing a good job. Later in this collection, “Reiterated, Opinion Changes Meaning” offers more small percussions. Curiously arrhythmic, the notes sound as if they emanate from a child’s metal xylophone, and our old friend Mr. Sandpaper drops in for a visit. It’s a very long visit, well over a quarter hour, and his conversation can become wearying. Soon he dulls, and we move along. Our last stop is the title track, “In My Mind, Her Image Was Reversed.” A brief six minutes long, it has a nearly identifiable rhythm; you can pretty much tap it out, with only a few tricky half beat offsets to confuse you. A single guitar note drops in – it’s tied to a different master oscillator and soon wanders off. Sanding? Why certainly, it’s a theme. What this song evokes is the sound of Santa’s elves working away in midsummer, doing all the basic carpentry and rough finish work. Yes, we are experimenting, and it’s going to be a long night in the lab analyzing all this sawdust.
Eric Glick Rieman: http://www.accretions.com/artists/eric.asp
