Battles' frontman Tyondai Braxton released his debut solo album this year, and it flew by pretty far under the radar for me until I accidentally came upon it at my local independent record store. It's certainly worth tracking down, as its easily one of the finest albums that's come out all year. A friend at the radio station I work at, when I inquired about the album's sound, advised me that it sounded "like Battles, but weirder." Well, duh, I could have told you that -- why else would he be releasing it as a solo album? I didn't have the slightest inkling, however, that by "weirder" he meant "Battles juxtaposed with contemporary classical music and 70's prog." Braxton utilizes a small orchestra for the majority of the songs here, and what could have ended up sounding like pretentious, nu-prog shit ends up being some truly genius amalgamation of electronic and orchestral music. The ambiance that Braxton creates is truly unique in that its difficult, at times, to discern where the acoustic instruments end (such as the high woodwinds and plethora of auxiliary percussion instruments) and the electronic instruments begin. If this sounds like disastrous new-age, don't be concerned -- it's nothing like Yanni. Braxton has since been getting praise from the likes of Bjork and Four Tet, chiming in about how un-categorizable it is, and how this characterizes so much of its charm and genius. He clearly has a tremendous grasp of academic music, which isn't crazy to suggest considering his father is multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer Anthony Braxton. It takes a lot for a guitarist to impress me these days -- not in the sense that I'm difficult to please, but rather it's tough for me to distinguish truly great guitar playing occasionally (I suppose I'm usually listening to 'other things,' so to speak) -- but Braxton showcases his chops all over this thing -- especially on the extended coda solo on "The Duck and the Butcher" and on the electro-rock showcase "J. City." Not only can Braxton compose and perform brilliant electronic orchestral music, but he can play the guitar like a motherfucker. Braxton is truly among the pinnacle of artists today pushing the boundaries of contemporary music. He is writing and performing music for the future: blending the instrumentation of past and present to convey something uniquely fascinating and forward-thinking. Yet so much of the album needs to speak for itself -- the way it moves, this sense of urgency and excitement and intrigue that underlies the music -- that there's little chance of going into Tyondai Braxton's Central Market with any context of what to expect. This is its greatest strength. www.myspace.com/tyondaibraxton
Guys, this is seriously an awesome album. You would be hurting yourselves if you didn't check it out.
I don't think its hyperbolic at all to be distinctly passionate with particular music as well recognizing where it fits in context with current music culture. As such I don't hesitate to to speak so extravagantly about this music when I believe it is justified. I certainly believe Braxton is among the finest artistic talents writing today. That's after 20 or so listens to the album, mind you.
I think it's hyperbolic because I don't think you really have an appropriate understanding of the context in question. The idea that Braxton is writing and performing music for the future, for example, isn't really justified and neither is the idea that he's at the pinnacle of artists pushing the boundaries of contemporary music. He might be at the forefront of popular artists pushing the boundaries of popular music - but in the broader spectrum of musical development, he's arguably anywhere between ten and fifty years behind. Electro-acoustic composition has been around for decades and Central Market wears its influences on its sleeve. There are shades of Riley, Eno, Stalling, Reich, Zappa and countless other composers littered throughout and the general concepts of the compositions are nothing new. Zappa, in particular, covered extremely similar territories towards the tail end of his career. Hell, even speaking in contemporary terms, Squarepusher has explored some pretty similar ideas in recent years. This is not to say Central Market is a bad record - I think it's excellent. I just think your praise is a little over-the-top. The general ideas of Central Market have nothing on the practices of an outfit like Semiconductor or a composer like Robert Davidson.
