ARTICLES
Ten Questions: Fat Jon
MUTEK 2006

ALBUMS
65daysofstatic
A Cloud Mireya
Ambarchi and Ng
Another Elec. Musician
Derek Bailey
Band Ane
Barzin
Black Gold 360
The Blow
Boduf Songs
Childs
Darc Mind
Dosh
Duopandamix
Fat Jon & Styrofoam
Liam Gillick
Shuta Hasunuma
Tim Hecker
Ilkae
Jack's Son
Richard Jäverling
Jazzkammer
Junior Boys
Last Days
Hanno Leichtmann
Luomo
Mandelbrot Set
Mountaineer
N.Phect & Dizplay
Part Timer
Karsten Pflum
Benoît Pioulard
Plus Device
+/- {Plus/Minus}
Relay
Saroos
Seht
Shedding
So Percussion
Sybarite
Trio Vopá
Marshall Watson
Weather Report
Donato Wharton
Christopher Willits
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
ESL Remixed
Four Tet
Garnier & Craig
Ginglik Saturdays
Michael Mayer
Henrik Schwarz

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Colleen
Delano and Xpansul
Detritus
Ed Devane
Eskimo
Feathers
Goldmund
Ezekiel Honig/Graphic
Ezekiel Honig
Eliot Lipp
Robert Lippok
Alejandro Lopez
Evan Marc
Porter & Carr
Sebastian Russell
Somone Else
Spaceships & Pings
SplitEP3
Simon Whetham

Christopher Willits: Surf Boundaries
Ghostly

That Willits' Surf Boundaries appears as part of Ghostly's SMM series, a showcase for ambient and downtempo music, says a lot about its overall style. It's mellower than The Right Kind of Nothing, the California-based guitarist's recent North Valley Subconscious Orchestra collaboration with Brad Laner, for one thing, but also more varied than the fully instrumental Pollen, issued by Fällt in 2004 (though Willits' staccato guitar flicker, so much a Pollen signature, dominates “Orange Lit Spaces”). Even so, Willits disrupts lush splendor with occasional episodes of noise; guitars wail from deep within a blurry vortex in “Love Wind,” for example, proving that Surf Boundaries isn't always so polite.

Unfurling like a pastel cloud, the gorgeous “Colors Shifting” sets the tone for the album. In this first of three variations, soft guitar flickers pan from left to right while the feathery vocals Willits and Ultra Records' Latrice Barnett exhale gently over a softly ringing cymbal pulse. The tempo gradually slows to a halt before the tune re-emerges in a slow-moving blurry haze. “Medium Blue” then abruptly explodes the mood with a hyper drum solo before morphing into a clattering mass of string tones, guitar haze, breathy vocals, and driving bass lines. The later “Yellow Springs” exudes a similarly rambunctious and psychedelic spirit that suggests strong affinities between Willits and Caribou. Shorter pieces, like the peacefully billowing “Saturn” and “Like Water,” a sweet interlude of bright guitar flutter, provide stylistic variety while the quietly euphoric ballad “Green and Gold” is particularly heavenly. At disc's end, trombones guide the ruminative “The Greatest Rain” to an almost orchestral close before the album exits in a glorious a cappella reprise of the “Colours Shifting” vocal. At 38 minutes, the album's short compared to most releases yet doesn't feel slight; if anything, Willits compresses a broad range of music-making—shoegaze, psychedelia, ambient, post-rock—into a bold yet succinct statement.

November 2006