• 55 copies on black vinyl
• 95 on sky blue vinyl [with white blend to represent fluffy clouds] and
• 294 copies on mottled peacock blue vinyl (available via distributors only).

AIDAN BAKER - GATHERING BLUE (2LP, Equation records, E=mc17)

Somehow, the theme for this review appears to be "blue". It's not just because of the title. For one, this Aidan Baker album arrived the same day I picked up a second hand copy of Oren Ambachi's In The Pendulum's Embrace 2LP, which was pressed on gorgeous blue vinyl and, whilst I opened the door for the mailman, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue LP (also pressed on blue vinyl) was playing. Much to my happiness, the Baker album is also pressed on blue vinyl and gorgeous it is too; 93 of the 499 copies are pressed on marbled blue. Add to this the fact that the only other Baker release I have in my collection, an early Drone records single, is also pressed on blue vinyl and you get the picture. Baker's latest album, a double one no less, comes in a gatefold cover (by Aidan Baker) with colour still-life photography (for the labels and insert card) by Alan McClelland. It just looks great. Now on to the music. Somehow, here the theme "blue" also persists; as this is downbeat music, played in minor keys. Hailing from Toronto, Canada Baker is an accomplished and inventive guitarist (another parallel with Oren Ambachi, though admittedly not with Dennis Wilson who was a drummer) working in the field of drones and ambient reworkings. He has also published a number of poetry books.
 
On this largely instrumental album the ardent Baker-fan might recognize The Cicadas Sing Our Love Song as that is a remix from an earlier version. Baker's music luckily never falls into the trap that is computerized/filtered guitar droning. His music is more like structured/composed sound (rather than just washes of guitar) mixed in low, deep drones. With Baker's music I get the feeling actual composing is the basis of his songs, rather than just letting drones do their work. Occasionally lighter sounds and recognizable guitar patterns protrude the atmosphere. The tracklisting on this album is a bit confusing, with only 5 tracks identifiable on the albums themselves and 9 listed on the cover. Oh dear. Still, in the end this doesn't matter as this is an album you probably listen to as one whole. The vocal tracks are on side two, including a surprise soft haunting version of Joy Division's 24 hours. The final (side long) track adds some drumtracks, but somehow I found this a bit of a distraction to the general feel of the album. In all, a wonderful album. (FK).

I was a bit surprised when I saw the track listing and wondered why I recognized “The Taste of Summer on Your Skin,” then realized that it had been previously released on Taâlem Records. It seems that this is a mix of previous work with new material. The label describes the album thus: “Gathering Blue provides new original material plus a stunning cover of the Joy Division track ‘24 Hours’ as well as an extended work-out of the remix of ‘The Cicada Sings Our Love Song’ by Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks. We are also treated to a delicate revisiting of the Troum remix of ‘When You Scream’ - both of the aforementioned remixes were originally released in 2005 on the ultra-limited and long-deleted Arcolepsy Records CD ‘Remixes.’”

So let’s talk about the music. This is a double LP, which lets you know you are in for a long ride, but with Baker at the wheel you know that there will be beautiful scenery along the way. Side A consists of “Bond Of Blood,” which features the soothing drones that Baker is known for. At times his voice comes into the mix, but it doesn’t seem out of place, as sometimes happens with drone. Side B consists of Gathering Blue and 24 Hours, which is a Joy Division cover. At least he picked a more obscure one than “Love Will Tear Us Apart Again”! The closest comparison I can give is when Frazier Chorus did a cover of Anarchy in the UK. The result was oddly soothing in a way that Joy Division never was. Side C consists of “The Cicadas Sing Our Love Song / Cipher / Cicadas / Circuitry / Cicatrice” which all blend together into peaceful drone. My wife at this point commented on how much she was enjoying this album and she is not really a fan of experimental music. Side D takes a slightly different turn with “The Taste Of Summer On Your Skin / When You Scream...” which opens with a bit of drums and dissonance and even a touch of feedback. Here and there pulsing waves and buzzing crescendo and decrescendo throughout. It never gets really noisy, but a bit more dissonant than the other three sides. Overall, this is a very enjoyable release that demonstrates why Baker seems to be all over the place. Like all Equation Records releases, this is beautifully packaged in gatefold sleeve and pressed on 180 gram vinyl. This release comes in three different possibilities of vinyl: black, sky blue, and mottled peacock-blue.

I can’t tell if Aidan Baker is releasing old material and calling it new or producing muddy sounding music on purpose. Much of Gathering Blue has a basement tapes quality to it, but the reissued material that composes the second LP of this two-LP set is mostly stunning, as is the packaging that accompanies it. Baker might be in need of some quality control when it comes to his latest work, but his back catalog continues to impress me.
 
Aidan goes for broke and begins his latest endeavor with a side-long meditative jam. It’s composed mostly of a strong, low-end rhythm, an indistinct weave of harmonies, and the kind of processed haze found on nearly every fuzzy, electronics-heavy record out there. A fraction of the way through, Baker begins to half-mumble some vague and mostly incoherent lyrics with a heavy-handed dramatic tint to them. “Bond of Blood” is a risky way to start a record and it mostly fails to capture my attention. It is mixed entirely too low and contains a repetitive structure that completely betrays Baker’s typically intricate and subtle approach to writing. Anything on the I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed compilation bests this muddied work by a country mile.
 
Thankfully, the reverse side of the record picks up some of the slack with “Gathering Blue” and a cover of Joy Division’s “24 Hours.” Nevertheless, a strangely under-produced sound hovers over these songs. When compared to the second LP, all three opening tunes sound like unfinished demos tossed together without a thought given to production. Sometimes the rawness of poorly recorded albums can be appealing, but in Baker’s case nothing is gained and a lot is lost. In any case, “Gathering Blue” is another mostly quiet amalgam of processed guitar and quiet melody, but it brings a little more structure and diversity to the table than side A did. The Joy Division cover is both amusing and disappointing. For the duration of the song Baker simply plucks its familiar melody and sings the lyrics in the same half-mumbled way employed on “Bond of Blood.” The result is a dreary and dark remake of an already dark and weighty song, but without the driving rhythm or bitter anger of the original. It works to an extent, but I’ve come to expect more from Baker. Vocally, he doesn’t seem capable of expressing anything beyond doubt, remorse, or self-loathing, none of which compliment the music on this record.
 
The second LP illustrates just why Baker became so popular in the first place. It collects the Cicatrice and The Taste of Summer on Your Skin EPs from 2003 and 2004 as well as a couple of remixes included on the Arcolepsy remix EP from 2005. The Cicatrice EP and a remix by Building Castles Out of Matchsticks take up the entirety of Gathering Blue’s third side. Each of the five songs are soulful and carefully layered productions that move along at a slow and sensuous pace. The contrast between their shimmering high end and substantial low end produces an almost dub-like and hallucinogenic effect, which reverberates and throbs like a inhuman organ and lends a substantial amount of movement to the whole production. Colorful echoes and subtle nuances decorate Cicatrice from top to bottom, but Baker doesn’t rely on them to be effective. An indistinct, but persistent sense of melody and intensity carries these pieces, which are seamlessly meshed together by crisp production and clever sequencing. It’s a shame that an already limited and hard-to-find EP such as this one had to be re-released on a limited vinyl collection.
 
The fourth and final side of Gathering Blue is something of a mixed bag, but Cicatrice is a hard act to follow. The Taste of Summer on Your Skin is an upbeat and mostly busy production with drum‘n’bass rhythms populating a portion of its length. Dark, atonal pulses and cosmic noise constitute the rest of the it, which is entertaining but not altogether enthralling. I’ve heard lots of spacey sounds like these and though the effects and arrangements employed are attractive, they’re also a little predictable. The dark colors and menacing passages work for me, but are familiar and well-trodden, too. The Troum remix, which ends the record, is a lovely mass of sound built from metallic trembling and futuristic horn sections. It ends the record on a high note, but doesn’t exactly strike me as an appropriate closer.
 
On a record this uneven, a killer Baker original could have saved the day and left me musing over his many talents, but instead I’m left thinking of another band and their consistently excellent output. Gathering Blue is a sloppy and strangely fractured collection, but still worth seeking out just for the Cicatrice reissue and gorgeous packaging. Everything else will likely intrigue Baker fans, but fail to win anyone else over.