Lee Bannnon / Pattern of Excel

Release Date: July, 2015


水底の夢

Lee Bannonについては、去年出たアルバムについて触れたが、当時はジューク/フットワークの喧騒がその作品のなかに渦巻いていた。元々はヒップホップのバックグラウンドを持つとはいえ、自分の持つあらゆる引き出し以外にも、彼が日々出会う音楽の要素を内部変換して進化を続けているということは、本作を聴いてもよく理解できる。

アルバムはまず、プールに飛び込む水しぶきの音で始まる。そして、プールの底で水が耳に入り、音は失われ、やがて不規則な水中の反響音に意識が弄ばれるようになる。その不条理な音響はArcaの「Xen」を連想させる。ただ、いつしか、それはギター音の輪郭を持ち始め、一筋の人間性を漂わせるようになる。あの「Twin Peaks」の中で流れていた、アンジェロ・バダラメンティの曲のように、水の中なのか、夢の中なのか境界線が見つからないまま次の曲「Artificial Stasis」に移行する。続く「Suffer Gene」でも、Arcaの亡霊が水の底で聖歌を唄い、時折、水中に投下される爆撃に晒されている。そして、インターバルのような短い曲の「refoah」は、どう考えてもAphex Twinへの愛を感じる曲となっていて、続く「Paofex」は坂本龍一の「戦場のメリークリスマス」のサントラの「A Brief Encounter」のごとく、湿った夢の中のような曲だ。「Aga」は絶望の末、水中に身を投げた身体が暗い水の底へどんどん沈んで行くようなBurial的な悲しさをまとう曲だが、そこからギターのロマンチックさがLoneの「Lemurian」的な「DisneμGirls」に移行する。ただ、アルバム全体を通して感じるのは、水の中でユラユラ動く仄かな光で、それはどこか懐かしく魅惑的な、Boards of Canadaの持つ歪みに似ている。水中で溺れているのか、心地よく沈んでいるのか、どちらとも言えない世界観が広がり、最近の作品としては珍しく、アルバムのジャケット写真のイメージと連動するような、文字通り深みのあるひとつの作品に仕上がっている。








Dreaming Underwater

I have commented on Lee Bannon relating with his last album, and I recall that those hustle and bustle of Juke/Footwork were whirling within that album. It may be true that he has a Hip Hop background, but as you listen to this album, it becomes clear that his music is always on the track of an evolution which does not only rely to his musical experiences, but is being brought out by him transforming various types of music that he hears in his everyday life.

The album opens with a sound of splashing water such made when jumping into a pool. Then as you sink deep in the pool, water starts to plug your ears and become soundless until disorderly echo sounds start to trifle your conscience. This absurdity reminds me of Arca’s album, “Xen”. Yet, there gradually appears a feature of guitar sounds and tints of humanness start to drift around. It is like Angelo Badalamenti’s music which we have heard in “Twin Peaks”; the music which I cannot tell whether I am in water or in a dream, thus no boundary could be found in between those as the track moves to the next one, “Artificial Stasis”. Then in “Suffer Gene”, you will hear Arca’s apparition singing a hymn in the depth of the water to which air bombs are being dropped occasionally. The short track, “refoah” is obviously a tribute track for Aphex Twin, and the following “Paofex” is like being in a moisty dream as like in Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “A Brief Encounter” from the soundtrack of the film, “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”. “Aga” is a Burial-sad track which sounds as if sinking deeply down the water after throwing yourself into it from a deep despair. Yet the following track, “DisneμGirls” plays a guitar, as romantic as in Lone’s album, “Lemurian”. The album is filled with faint reflections of light dancing in water and sounds sweet and alluring as the warping music of Boards of Canada. I cannot define this feeling, whether you are drowning in water or loosely sinking to the depth, but is well linked with the image of the art work of the album, which is not a common thing to happen these days. In this sense, I feel it is a well-designed album, an epic that has some depth.