If you thought
Lugubrious
was taking quite a sidestep from
MX-80
's output, beware of
Western Classics
. The
ambient
feel of the previous album remains, but its
electronica
touches are downplayed in favor of an
Ennio Morricone
feel.
Bruce Anderson
and
Jim Hrabetin
's guitars and basses occupy center stage for this project. Twangy chords and smoky melodies and desert-flavored effects abound. The drums of
Dave Mahoney
Marc Weinstein
are often the only accompaniment. Arrangements are stark but efficient, creating wide-angle cinematics that may or may not relate to the movies from which they take their titles. But the mood is right: a postmodern West, where beatboxes have been left to decay in the sand and
Western
cliches have evolved into a new form of
instrumental rock
.
"The Searchers"
"3 Faces of Eve"
both contain memorable themes and creative guitar work.
"The Manchurian Candidate"
features quiet wordless vocals from
Dale Sophiea
(created for "narrative flow"). A
-themed album would not be complete without a whistled tune, so
"Point Blank"
delivers it. The album consists of six pieces in the five- to seven-minute range, plus the half-hour-long
"McCabe & Mrs. Miller (With Deleted Scenes)."
A myth breaker of sorts, this movie called for a slightly different
soundtrack
. The piece heard here is actually a suite of seemingly unrelated sections moving from guitar strumming to drones and
experimental
improvisation
. It sounds like a collage made from the strips of footage left on the floor after the director left the editing room. It is considerably less impressive than the other material on the album (it lacks focus and is too uneven), but it still has its moments. And it doesn't bring down tunes like
"The Searchers."
~ Francois Couture