John Barnes: 3 Yellows Make Black
noground-r

John Barnes (the name, apparently, honours a football player) is the primarily electronic solo project of ex-Mountain Men Anonymous guitarist Sam Arnold. There's a good amount of music packed into the five instrumentals of his three-inch 3 Yellows Make Black disc, though not all of it's perfect. The good news first: the disc opens well with the acoustic guitar overture “#” whose loveliness is matched by the equally pretty harp setting “Course Nature”; the elegant IDM excursion, “Manfrizian” impresses also with its streaming synth tones and delicate melodies. Arnold falters on “Everything In One” and “Porn Intro,” however, specifically in allowing Jungle clatter to overshadow the songs' otherwise appealing qualities. The former, for example, begins promisingly with mournful string figures until drum noise nearly drowns the orchestral elements. If there's an upside to the misstep, it's that Arnold only has to strip away such excess in order for his John Barnes music to undergo marked improvement.

April 2006