Michael Columbia – These Are Colored Bars (Alabaster, 2004)
Michael Columbia is not a person, although you may have read other reviews that affectionately refer to “him” or “he”. In fact Michael Columbia is a duo consisting of David McDonnell and Dylan Ryan (who is a candidate for the best named man in the universe). Other musicians appear sporadically throughout this offering, but really the stars of this effort are the horns of McDonnell. Each track is based around a rather funky and krauty sounding drum beat (“Baseball Museum”, “Mr. Bulgia”, “Unknown Shape”), but without the horns coming in, the songs would become labor some to get through. “Hobart” displays not just this notion concerning the horns, but adds some skronk. Not just normal notes, but the equivalent to guitar feedback. Even though McDonnell doesn’t get down on every track, the horns are still indispensable on “Mouse”, “Dupress” and “Thanks to You Jeremy”. Two points of contention here though. First, even with the sax, there are issues that arise in any instrumental music. How can attention and interest be maintained? The sax and clarinet answer that question most often, but there is still something intangible lacking. Secondly, and more egregious, the rare appearance of vocals on “Special Export” and the closing track, “Buzz Aldrin”, are more than disagreeable. No other major complaints. Unfortunately, I can only recommend this one to people who live in Chicago and know these fellows, are relatives of the band or really love funky drumming. I guess that’s probably enough people for the record to make a profit though. And really, even art is a business.
