Apalusa, Small Environs (3" CDR Low Point)

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Dan Layton filed and polished the sounds on this twenty-minute, three-track CD over two months, November and December of last year. Whether he began on 30 November and was finished 1 December or used all sixty-one days available during that time is left unsaid. Either way, he has produced three short but attention-getting pieces of drone ambient.

No information is provided about the sound source(s), but I believe I have at least identified a kind of guitar treated on the first of the unnamed trilogy of tunes which may trip the nostalgia switch in older listeners, reminding them of early Frippertronics. It is a very soft and graceful track, approaching and receding like waves on a beach.

Seguing into the second track, we are now on slightly more ominous turf. Here the guitar (if it is indeed a guitar) shudders quietly until barely discernable static joins it about half-way through. For all its quiet nature - or perhaps because - a very dramatic, noirish piece. The closing track conjures a tense atmosphere with what sounds like a nervous string section caught in an eternal tune-up (though it lasts but four and a half minutes).

Comes in a snazzy little soft plastic jewel case with stark black and white images of what Manhattan looks like on drugs gracing the front and back covers.

http://www.low-point.com