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FILE UNDER: Mad science symphony
Tyondai Braxton - Central MarketAlternative Press - Scott Heisel on 9/3/09 @ 7:00 AM - altpress.com
Half of the fun of Battles' exuberant 2007 jam "Atlas" was decoding Tyondai Braxton's pitch-shifted verses-was he singing, "People won't be people when they hear this sound" or "People will be people when they eat this sandwich"? The band's breakthrough single is proof that Braxton doesn't need decipherable lyrics to get his point across. In his decade-plus career, the avant garde composer has made intensely expressive music using noise loops, guitars that sound like keyboards and keyboards that sound like guitars. His vocal cords make cameos, but only when effected beyond human recognition. On "J. City," a highlight of Central Market's second half, the inherent surprise of hearing Braxton clearly sing, "The hallway/Streamers on the ceiling," speaks volumes about his experimental nature. Among the album's jagged symphonics, jolting percussion and electronic squalls, the most shocking moment comes when Braxton sings comprehensible words.
This isn't to say that Central Market even flirts with conventionalism. Braxton's sixth solo album is largely instrumental and heavily orchestrated, its first five tracks flowing like a classical suite. Even though Braxton is most well known for fronting the world's hardest-hitting art rock group, most of Central Market's reference points are composers rather than bands. The buoyant "Opening Bell" is anchored a hypnotic piano fragment borrowed from Steve Reich; "Platinum Rows" echos John Zorn's schizophrenic structures; and "The Duck And The Butcher" is reminiscent of Danny Elfman's playful movie scores. The pair of tracks that cap off the album come the closest to his main gig. "J. City," the only thing resembling a pop song in Braxton's discography, is built around an atonal guitar loop not unlike Battles' "Tij"; and the beat that drops halfway through "Dead Strings" is the sort of hyperkinetic robot rhythm heard all over the group's masterpiece Mirrored.
Still, Central Market is pure Braxton. His trademark synthesized whistling and soulful, wordless melodies lay alongside lush swells of brass and strings, making it hard to imagine anyone else in the universe writing these songs. Throughout the record, the listener has been provided with a portal directly into Braxton's brain (which, if the metallic clanking of "Uffe's Woodshop" is any indication, is an elaborate Dr. Seuss-esque mechanism of neon-colored gears spinning violently and shooting sparks in a million directions at once). It may be an overstatement to say that Braxton is bridging the gap between the stuffy world of high art and the seedy underbelly of underground rock, but Central Market could prove to some that contemporary classical music can be more epic than post-rock, more dangerous than metal, and have more to say than the most verbose MC-even if most of his songs don't have any words. (WARP) Ryan Wasoba
GO DOWNLOAD: "Uffe's Woodshop"
Official Website: http://www.warp.net
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