The Books, The Way Out
Featured Album
A humane, funny and playful, spry and colorful brand of geekery
Combining collaged musical abstraction with gentle songwriting and obtuse vocal samples, singer-guitarist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong are leading lights in "folktronica," one of music's more pretentious art-nooks. Yet, the duo's brand of geekery is humane, funny and playful, spry and colorful where their contemporaries are ponderous and gray. The Way Out, their first disc in five years, uses samples from old hypnotherapy and self-help tapes to explore, and also poke some fun at, New Age mysticism. "On this recording music specifically created for its pleasurable effects upon your mind body and emotions is mixed with a warm orange colored liquid," a reassuring voice informs us on the opening track "Group Autogenics 1." And so it does. Books tracks are fluid, bright little things: gently propulsive digi-beats, coy, shapely bass-lines, plush acoustic guitar figures, minimalist strings, chimes, horns, an unsettled easy listening perfect for a record that takes a sidelong look at the culture of spiritual healing. "Beautiful People" riffs on Christian transcendence, as an ascending circular groove loops around a choir's invocations. "Chain of Missing Links" sets a guru's transcendental relaxation rap to a churning, unsettled trip-hop groove. "The Story of Hip-Hop" uses a children's record to satiric effect. The Books' slow-motion songwriting at times lacks the wry buoyancy of their found-sound tomfoolery. They're better explorers than expressers, making dumpster-diving feel religious. To quote one of the sandaled philosophers they sample: "your being merges with the garbage."
