4/18/11

Slessig

Dick Slessig Combo CD - "Wichita Lineman" b/w "Guinnevere" Carl Bronson, Mark Lightcap (Acetone) and Steve Goodfriend (Radar Brothers) perform as the Dick Slessig Combo. The group creates dreamy instrumental arrangements of songs from the late '60's through the early '70's. On this disc they produce a high desert evening quiet drift of the Jimmy Webb classic "Wichita Lineman" that clocks in at a calming 43 minutes. Also on this disc is a ghostly arrangement of "Guinnevere" by David Crosby. This disc is excellent. The Dick Slessig Combo has played in art and music contexts, opening up exhibitions as well as for groups like Matmos, in the United States as well as Europe. Greil Marcus described his discovery of the Combo in one of his Salon Top 10 lists a few years back: "2) Dick Slessig Combo, presented by Jessica Bronson, "Rock Your Baby," at the Portland, Ore., Art Museum (July 7) Carl Bronson, bass, Steve Goodfriend, drums, and Mark Lightcap, guitar -- the Dick Slessig Combo, as in dyslexic -- were playing on L.A. conceptual artist Jessica Bronson's internally lit bandstand for the Portland opening of "Let's Entertain," a motley assemblage of glamorous art statements first staged at the Walker in Minneapolis. They were at least a half-hour into a performance that would eventually cover 90 minutes before I realized the nearly abstract, circular pattern the trio was offering as the meaning of life -- it was all they were playing, anyway -- was from George McCrae's effortlessly seductive 1974 Miami disco hit. Or rather the pattern wasn't from the tune, it was the tune, the thing itself. Variation was never McCrae's point (the big moment in his "Rock Your Baby," the equivalent of the guitar solo, is when he barely whispers "Come on"); finding the perfect, self-renewing riff was. "I could listen to that forever," I said to Bronson when he and the others finally stepped down for a break. "We'd play it forever if we were physically capable," he said. The bandstand is empty now, but a 50-minute edit of the number will be running in the air above it, over and over, through Sept. 17." via note; inside info is that a new release in the works. if you can find this disc you are happy. interested? sound here and the message will be passed on. this is a must have recording. 2 recordings that last as long as most full Lps yet, you'd never know it as it always ends too soon. image above from the Greil Marcus Book