Split Series #15

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Two guitar peddlers Fennesz and Main's riffs are counterpoints to each other's style. Main started with washes of processed guitar, while even from Hotel Paral.lel Fennez knew how to coast his processed pieces in pop sounds. The good thing is Main has toned down the density of his work, and Fennesz has accepted the many facets of his styles. This split 12" is a sign of good maturation in each other's sound.

Fennesz's side features 3 tracks. "Eisrennen," is a straight pop ode with giests of a guitar floating through ambient melodies. "Badminton Girl," is a more pointillist piece that eschews melody for just plain cool sounds. "47 Blues," combines the two approaches, bringing into focus Fennesz's abilities to center on a sound and capture it's essence.

Main goes with a three piece ambient epic entitled Rive parts 1-3. Preferring to cluster his compositions, Main's work is like eaves dropping into the calls of a deformed universe with the occasional drone taking up the slacking cord on a mutant trolley bringing you back to earth. With part 3 the work ceases to be a tour and becomes a soundtrack with the clatter of tracks outlining what could be the gears of a screen receding from another virtual tour.

Main's evolution of using guitar source material to power his many filters is distanced from Fennesz's guitar bleed through. What Fennesz delivers is more akin to what you'd expect a processed guitar to be like and is very accessible and fun. Main's dense layers of cloaked tones form a deeper sound world, but lack the musical structure that give Fennez's work it's power. What Main lacks is a realization that a concise composition went into the musique concrete he obviously admires, while Fennesz ignores the possibilities opened to him sticking with music that could go many places, but instead sounds like a new take on folk.