Peter Wright

Peter Wright
Distant Bombs

It’s been a good year for those seeking resurrection of lost and limited releases. Never mind the activity of any other labels, Providence Rhode Island’s Last Visible Dog alone has rescued most of MCMS’s catalog, Pylon’s “Not Cobras,” LSD-march’s “Suddenly, Like Flames,” and now Peter Wright’s “Distant Bombs” from out of print limbo. “Distant Bombs” consists of recordings made in 2001-2002 while Wright was still located in New Zealand. Given the speed of musical innovation these days, three years can be enough to make a recording sound dated. However, it’s clear how influential and prescient these recordings were. In fact, in listening to this work one can hear the foundations built on in the intervening time by Birchville Cat Motel, Black Forest / Black Sea, and Double Leopards to name but a few. On “Distant Bombs,” Wright takes guitars, and runs them through various effects to extract their lulling essence in a rich, clear broth. Sometimes the sounds are taped and looped which further erodes their sharp edges. Everything here is assembled with the care and attention of a master craftsman. The drones achieve hypnotic calm through constant shifting of each component in relation to the others rather than microtonal variations on a dominant one. Figure and ground alternate as Wright brings different motifs to the foreground only to recede in subtle shifts in dynamics. It is as if Wright had realized the common threads that run through all of the disparate elements he worked with and coaxed them together to converge at a distant vanishing point. To emphasize this journey, most of the tracks begin with varied sources (anything from acoustic guitar or violin, to what sounds like a processed field recording of the ocean) that coalesce in layers into powerfully assured drones over their course. Even the pieces clocking in at over ten minutes feel like concise statements; they are that length only because their cadence demanded it. From the outset, the music is readily approachable. “the subtle vibrations of distant bombs” spins a warm envelope of overlapping repetitions that caress the listener in a gentle cradle of smeared tape loops and minimal plucked guitar that barely disturbs the placid surface of the lake. Soon, the warm ripples emanating from the heart of the overlapping tones meander their way out to lap at the banks. The whole feel is one of openness, of invitation. “sprawling like an open field” transposes the ripples onto land as its ominous crescendos often make the listener feel that they are out on a vast open space. “deflection” assembles a selection of what first would seem to be jarring timbres playing in wide stereo separation (an especially nice effect on headphones). Through careful layering, Wright reconciles skittery buzzing violin with tranquil longer tones. By the time the ocean waves of “sumner wives wheeling prams on the esplanade” wash from ear to ear with its nod to Seventies prog synthesizers, a pattern of construction is beginning to emerge. In each successive piece, Wright has found a different path to resolution, but like bearings circling their way from the rim to the bottom of a metal bowl, all trajectories inevitably come to rest at the same location. In the gorgeous epic “harsh reflection”, guitar emerges from slowly building feedback squeal and hum to lead an almost pastoral melody. “undertow” breaks the mesmeric spell gently as Wright’s voice laments that he is “always falling down in the water” over an elliptical lo-fi acoustic guitar riff. This is a downbeat pop miniature reminiscent of Alastair Galbraith. One would think nothing could be further from the rest of the disc stylistically, but Wright manages to encapsulate in barely over a minute the principles explored in all that came before it. Reissues afford an opportunity for hindsight and re-evaluation of the work itself, the artist’s catalog, and it’s influence on followers. Taken in relation to the rest of Wright’s impressive catalog to date, it becomes clear that “Distant Bombs” is not only a highpoint but was a giant step towards mapping his musical landscape, laying down signposts for those to come, and making the case that all roads lead to Drone. - Steve Rybicki, Foxy Digitalis

Distant Bombs is considered by many (including myself) to be Peter's finest release. Originally issued on CD-R by Peter's own Apoplexy label.

There is a very nice interview with Peter Wright over at foxy digitalis: http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/pw1.html