Male – All Are Welcome
Irony is a device known intimately by members of the indie community. It should come as no surprise then that the uninspired moniker chosen by Chicago’s Male is in direct contradiction to the band’s musical ethos. A self-described “experimental ensemble,” Male are really just an eclectic duo augmented by several other talented minds from the Windy City’s avant-jazz and rock scenes. Pulling in members of Exploding Star Orchestra, Pan American, and Joan Of Arc, Jonathan Krohn and Ben Mjolsness let their obsession with improvised textures take center stage on All Are Welcome. When AM radio signals and beer bottle percussion are in the mix, one might expect a soupy mess of atonal ambient muck. Yet despite the fact that the album is essentially a canvas of white noise, otherworldly drones, and astral dissonances, it achieves a remarkable sense of poignancy that holds things taut for its half hour running time.
Giving the guest musicians just one take to lay down their individual tracks, Krohn and Mjolsness provided the foundation of the Male sound with whirling layers of keyboards and guitars before allowing each artist to build larger structures with vibraphone, cornet, percussion, and tape loops. Unlike so much of the mood music on the market today, this album cannot be brushed off as just another hack job of ignorable background mush. That being said, it’s unlikely that the captivating tones of All Are Welcome will be blasting forth from your masseuse’s stereo at your next massage appointment. These dudes stretch the hills and valleys of tension and release at such wide intervals that it is intensely difficult to nod off for more than a minute.
The album begins with “Wrangler For Higher,” where a few inconspicuous knocks on a drum and the twinkling of wind chimes give way to a bombast of guitar and keyboard discordance. Things escalate as a mixture of eighth note pulses and longer drones dance around a G major chord that never fully commits to resolution. The clamor becomes so engulfing at times that one gets the feeling of standing in the presence of a mighty and deafening machine. By the midway point though, the industrial wasteland created by the band is becoming slowly subsumed by an ocean; guitar feedback emits the underwater call of a whale as the keyboard sends rippling sonar blips through the darkness. If you’re anything less than impressed at the end of this first track, remind yourself that none of it was rehearsed.
The album’s most fascinating track is also its most expansive; a thirteen minute behemoth called “I’ll Be Standing Soon.” This piece finds Male picking up where the last track left off: everything glazed over with a hypnotic blend of guitar swells and incessantly buzzing keyboards. Then unsuspectingly, the longing wails of a cornet can be heard. Think of the tone Miles Davis had in his earliest “cool” period, and you’ll get the idea. The middle of the track is one of those rare places where the temptation to nod off might take hold. Those who have ever been lulled away by the comforting hum of an airplane engine or a roaring furnace will understand. The dulcet tones of a vibraphone and the shimmer of a cymbal ensure that the listener doesn’t remain in slumber mode for too long though. The song closes with a sinuous blend of auxiliary percussion and pulsing drones.
The album’s only other two tracks lack the depth and scope of the first two, though any fan of Brian Eno’s 1983 album, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, will take delight in the eerie guitar lines of “Dark Advances” and the outer space atmospheres of “Used To Be A Guy.” Someone has to just give these visionaries a name that’s slightly easier to Google, and we might really have something huge on our hands. In the meantime, putting whatever effort you must into finding them is well worth it.
