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(2021) G.S. Schray - The Changing Account
Review:
The Changing Account is G.S. Schray’s third album on the Last Resort label. In simple terms, this is more of the same delicious concoction of woozy jazz, post-rock and ambient flavors he perfected on his last album, First Appearance. (Schray is also a member of Lemon Quartet, who put out the excellent Crestless early last year, before the whole world ground to halt.) When you have a sound that’s as beautiful as Schray’s, it pays to stick to your guns. On this release there are occasional contributions from his Lemon Quartet bandmates Stephen Clements (piano), Corey Farrow (synth) and Keith Freund (piano, bass clarinet), but for the most part it’s Schray alone, weaving his inimitable way through these gloriously languid compositions. As with Schray’s last two solo releases, The Changing Account comprises eight tracks totalling just over 30 minutes of music, neatly split into two batches of four songs per side. The song titles — such as “In Select Everlight,” “Sated By The Plum” and “Two Pals Glowing” — are a story unto themselves, immediately conjuring a whimsical imaginary world. Schray’s quicksilver electric guitar playing continues to be a thing of wonder, accompanied by a varied instrumental palette including drums, bass, synth and horns, all blending beautifully in the mix. On the gorgeous scene-setting opener, “In Select Everlight,” Schray’s distinctive chord voicings suspend the listener aloft on waves of clean, shimmering, single-coil guitar tone. The track feels like it might melt into the aether, only for insistent tom-tom and bass drum to snap the scene into focus. The song really blooms in its final stretch, with golden swells of brass, before dissolving in a spiral of ride cymbals and heavily effected voices and synth. “Two Clouds Each” comes across like Tortoise lazily jamming on a Sunday afternoon, driven by shuffling ghost notes on the snare, double bass, and bright horn refrains. “Sated By The Plum” blends bass clarinet with Schray’s EWI (electronic wind instrument), thick synth beds deep enough to doze in, and twanging guitar leads. The longest piece, “Still, Puzzled,” is a wonderfully meditative, beatless exploration for guitar, double bass, organ and trumpet. “Eye On The Menace” rounds things off neatly with a short, tightly arranged composition built around piano and double bass. When an artist has such a distinctive and well-developed style, it’s often first exposure to their music that has the strongest impact. As a result, The Changing Account hasn’t made as much of an impression as First Appearance, though it’s similarly wonderful. If you’ve yet to step into G.S. Schray’s fantastical world, this is as good a starting point as any.
Tracklist:
01 - In Select Everlight
02 - Two Clouds Each
03 - Diverted By Faint Pathway
04 - Sated By the Plum
05 - Two Pals Glowing
06 - Still, Puzzled
07 - Dome That Was Nothing
08 - Eye On the Menace
Media Report:
Genre: ambient, jazz
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits |
