Albums
John Luther Adams
Félicia Atkinson
Cardopusher
Matt Christensen
Enrico Coniglio
Coniglio / Under the Snow
Dakota Suite
Deadbeat
Deepchord
Vladislav Delay Quartet
DJ W!LD
Dreissk
Mark E
Marcus Fjellström
Fourcolor
Fovea Hex
Ákos Garai
Kreng
Lerosa
Machinedrum
Mem1 + Stephen Vitiello
Message to Bears
Novi_sad
Rick Reed
Alexander Rishaug
Jannick Schou
Secret Cinema
Seven Saturdays
Sleeps in Oysters
Sound People
Strom Noir
Ryan Teague
thisquietarmy
thisquietarmy + Yellow6
Amon Tobin
Alexander Turnquist
Damian Valles
Vetrix
Simon Whetham
Winterlight
Compilations / Mixes
Brownswood Electr*c 2
Laid Compilation
Prosumer
EPs
David Åhlén
Arkhonia
Bad Sector
Bengalfuel
Wil Bolton
Ed Cooke
Davis / Kleefstras
Detroit: DeepConstructed
d'incise
Final Cut
Gang Colours
Richard A Ingram
Pfirter / Dadub
Nils Quak
Rhythm Baboon
Rumpistol
Mark Templeton
Damian Valles
Josh Varnedore
Ryan Teague: Causeway
Sonic Pieces
As the crystalline guitar sounds of Ryan Teague's Causeway fill the room, an elephant appears, one that must be dealt with before the recording's many positive qualities can be enumerated. Said elephant in the room is, of course, the music's similarity—the less charitable might say indebtedness—to the music of Steve Reich and more precisely the New York-based composer's Electric Counterpoint. That 1987 piece, which infamously weaves twelve guitar (and two electric bass guitars) into a gorgeous tapestry, could be regarded as a template for many of the pieces on Teague's recording: while admittedly he uses acoustic guitars in contrast to the electrics (obviously) heard in Reich's piece, there's a similar, intricate layering of guitar patterns, and a similar through-composed character to that layering too. “High Knoll,” for instance, is not only earmarked in its patterns by the chiming, percussive attack of Electric Counterpoint but even includes the kind of pulsating wave-like movements that so indelibly characterize Reich's work; in this case, the differences between the Teague composition and Reich's are almost too close for comfort. By contrast, the stately waltz “Undone” impresses not only for its lilting quality but for how it distances itself from Reich while nevertheless still building itself up from multiple layers. At such moments, Causeway would seem to have more in common with the chamber folk of another celebrated guitarist, James Blackshaw, than the revered composer of Music For Eighteen Musicians and Different Trains.
However, there are also key differences that distance the Teague recording, the Cambridge-based composer's follow-up to the debut album Coins & Crosses that appeared on Type Records five years ago, from Reich's. Teague often subtly expands the sonic palette beyond his acoustic guitars (exemplifed by the phasing treatments that appear during “White Nights”), and there are moments when he appears to depart ever so slightly from the strict through-composition style of Reich's composition. As a result, while Causeway includes formally composed exercises such as “Loophole (Figure 1),” it also features a stirring pastoral beauty like “Singular,” which, while still precisely structured, seems to breathe its melancholic air a little more naturally.June 2011