Split

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'Split' represents the coming together of like minds and musical forces - artists foregoing the forfeit of control to a record label by creating their own label as a vehicle for showcasing their friends' and their own music. The disc is the first out on the newly formed Make Mine Music, and it's a collaboration among the three musicians who initiated the label - Scott Sinfield and Rachel Hughes of Portal and Jon Attwood of Yellow6.

The structure of 'Split' reflects the impartiality and camaraderie involved with operating Make Mine Music. Each band is represented in equal parts; the first two tracks are from Portal, followed by two Yellow6 tracks and then rounding out with four collaborative pieces by Sinfield and Attwood. But politics aside, what does the music sound like?

Both Portal and Yellow6 share a similar voice and vision, primarily fueled by the humid, meditative atmospherics of processed guitar. What they compose is movement music - deep-toned, reverberating twangs that fit best against a shifting landscape, against the feeling of being far from home. Listening to tracks like Portal's 'Hold', Yellow6's 'The Sinking Sun', and Sinfield/Attwood's '#4' conjures up images of unbroken horizons, abandoned stacks of rusting railway ties, and fields of wild prairie grass.

While most of 'Split' carries the drift of an idyllic American West, a couple tracks embrace a more urban, chaotic uncertainty, namely Yellow6's 'Threefold' and Sinfield/Attwood's '#3'. Both songs have pools of molten feedback boiling in them, particularly in '#3', which rings with a metallic screech like overtaxed train breaks. If most of the disc constitutes traveling music, then these two tracks are the moments of derailment. Far from causing certain injury, however, 'Threefold' and '#3' keep the listener from getting too lulled by the gentle rocking of the guitar echoes. It's a mix that adds texture and character to the disc and gives a secondary reading to its name. More important, it shows the depth that Portal and Yellow6 attain when creating as a team, pulling together their musical and business inspirations and succeeding in both worlds. 'Split' not only works as a standalone disc, but it's a great opening shot for a new label.