TIM DAHL - SOLO
Tim Dahl is a New York based bass player and
composer with a diverse CV that spans contemporary jazz and art rock. The
skewed wit he can display as co-host of Lydia Lunch’s podcast The Lydian Spin
spills over into this debut solo release from September 2021 where Dahl acts (?) in a series of
skits as the outraged beneficiary of Nandor Nevai’s chaotic production
style. These dialogue tracks on Solo
reflect the anarchic spirit of Frank 'Rat Bastard' Falestra’s International Noise Conference to
which Nevai and Dahl have contributed. They also suggest Frank Zappa’s
clandestine band conversation recordings such as the interludes that link the
solos on Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar. ‘The Producer’ and ‘I Ruined It’
are particularly self-reflexive whereas ‘Do You Have’ experiments with
backwards vocals in a way that is more formally stimulating.
How you feel about this kind of faux verité may
depend on whether you believe the comedy music aspect of Zappa’s oeuvre
contributed to or distracted from his overall creative vision. Another point of
comparison is Godley and Crème’s Consequences which doubled as comedy
concept album and demonstration record for their Gizmo invention. Consequences
is a neglected masterpiece of 70s prog rock, but even its staunchest admirers
have their doubts about the late comedian Peter Cook’s contribution. The replay
life of the humorous side of Solo may be limited; thankfully, these
skits are short. It’s as a display of Dahl’s command over his instrument and
the effects rig that modifies its sound that Solo reveals its more
lasting qualities. He comes across at times most promisingly as a missing link
between Painkiller-era Bill Laswell and Uli Trepte.
The instrumental tracks range in length from
vignette scale to seven-minute-plus mini-epics. A dystopian SF vibe is conjured
by titles like ‘Essential Toxins’ that could stem from concerns about
environmental pollution Dahl often expresses on The Lydian Spin. There are
drone tones and noise blizzards that recall Kevin Drumm’s static-encrusted
reveries on Sheer Hellish Miasma and heavily effected incomprehensible
vocals in the manner of Trepte or Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder. The vocals
on ‘Crushed Globus’ even evoke the Magma-esque choral swells of ‘Ya Hozna’, Zappa’s
prog metal entry from Them and Us.
‘L'Anse
aux Meadows’ shares its name with the archaeological site of a Norse settlement
in the Canadian province of Newfoundland. Its vestigial opening
statement has an appropriately Norwegian black metal vibe before vocoder
ejaculations dissolve into reverse loops trailing with echo. The transmuted
vocalese on ‘Tamu Massif’ flares in arcing and dive bombing blurts over an
undercurrent of string rattle like emanations from exoplanetary pits filled
with sentient copper cilia.
‘Global Exit’ has bass harmonics moulded with echo
into sympathetic drone overlaid with glossolalist incantations while
‘R.B.C.N.W.’ features tape concréte chirrups out of Radio Cologne-era
Stockhausen or Berio. In ‘Matsushita Electric’, staggered bass clusters
interact with Dadaist sprechstimme in a frenzied race towards a new musical
form suggestive of konnakol with a slapped bass acting as tabla.
The album notes insist the tracks are recorded
live with no overdubs added, but that can be hard to believe listening to ‘SAG’
with its densely overlapping sonic layers. A solo that wanders capriciously and
atonally in a manner redolent of Eugene Chadbourne is a reminder of the calibre
of musicianship Dahl interacts with. He has also played with Faust and this
track’s feedback pulses and drone fuzz intensity recalls ‘Mamie is Blue’ from
the krautrock legends’ 1972 release So Far.
Despite some predominant shades of power
electronics and experimental black metal, genres not always noted for their
humour, Dahl certainly isn’t as forbiddingly austere as his jazz
realm contemporaries like Adam Pultz Melbye or Antonio Bertoni. Does the
fragmented and jarringly self-reflexive approach of Solo serve his
art better than the longform extended technique explorations those bassists
specialize in? Zappa might have argued that the comedic and serious strands of
his work were as fully integrated as he intended them to be. Dahl and Nevai may
have hit on an appropriate strategy to leaven intensity with levity after all. Solo
is not a complete success, but it nevertheless heralds the solo career of a
unique musician with a bevy of mutant sounds and dazzling instrumental colours
to share. If you want to hear Dahl's skills and creativity used in the more
durational manner of something like Luke Stewart’s Works for Upright Bass
and Amplifier, there’s an excellent if bewilderingly edited video on
YouTube of a performance in Leipzig from last August linked below.
TEXT: (C) Copyright by Jon Kromka 2022
Solo is available through Bandcamp:
https://timdahl.bandcamp.com/album/solo
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