Chewing Pine

Brad Barr – The Fall Apartment (Tompkins Square, 2008)

Unfortunately or not, The Fall Apartment really has nothing to do with the Slip. That band’s metamorphosis over the years has encompassed a great deal of stylistic variety, but doesn’t ever really touch upon acoustic, instrumental guitar music. The lone, potential meeting of Barr’s group and his solo outing is that of production value. Even while this disc focuses on Barr’s guitar, there are occasional flares of studio treachery more commonly found in electric music.

The first time that some obvious tape hiss rears its head is on “War.” And coming after “Sarah Through the Wall,” with its complex, although at times academic progressions, “War” presents itself as a new idea amongst all the lonely guitar tracks. Sadly enough it begins in the same fashion that the M.A.S.H. theme song does. Pretty quickly the tune differentiates itself enough so that listeners don’t think about helicopters and medics. Deep in the mix, a ghostly stringed instrument rings out occasional chords as the tape hiss fills the holes that the guitar leaves. It’s an interesting, if perhaps under-developed idea.

The only other track from The Fall Apartment that boasts production in the same way is the penultimate track, “Do I Have to Understand That?”

Whereas “War” retains the album’s folksy direction, “Do I…” seems like an ambient interlude from a rock record. Echoed percussion and the plucking of strings back-up an occasional electric guitar chord or screetch. More importantly than the sounds flying from this track is it’s sequencing on the album. Were this track placed at the very end of the recording, it would have served the album more fully as a whole. As it is, the following number, “Seranetta,” another lonely ballad, seems disconnected from the rest of the disc. This one flaw doesn’t greatly detract from the recording, but could have worked to create a more unified offering.

If this all sounded liking whining, it shouldn’t. ‘Cause Barr has balls enough to turn in an interpretation of Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box,” which surprisingly retains a tremendous amount of its initial fervor and ferocity. Who knew?