Music for Lamping

Paul Dickow follows up the gloriously bubbly ambient-dub-rock of Strategy's Future Rock with a very different sound on Music for Lamping. It's no coincidence that this album recalls the more abstract leanings of Dickow's pre-Future Rock releases: Music for Lamping consists of six years' worth of work — including music recorded for Tigerbeat6 that never saw release — which focuses on field recordings sourced from "sound walks" around his Portland, WA neighborhood that have been treated with heroic doses of granular synthesis, delay, and other electronic distorting and blurring. However, those familiar only with Future Rock will recognize Dickow's way with limpid textures and meticulously layered sounds; while that approach supported his previous album's elastic rhythms and melodies, here it's the main attraction — and it's compelling enough to be the main attraction, particularly on the 14 minute-plus tracks that bookend Music for Lamping. The album's opening track may be called "I Can't Stand the Rain," but it's actually a tone poem to the soothing, creative powers of a storm's sounds, surrounded by gently ebbing and flowing washes of electronics; "Lower Macleary" gives water, birds, and scuffling walking noises a similar treatment, turning them into a sound environment as the sounds of rippling water rise like a tide pool. Both tracks drift by, subtly but not unobtrusively, without ever dragging (and their very subtle arcs will also sound familiar to Future Rock fans). The same flair for impressionism shines on Music for Lamping's shorter pieces; "Cathedral Spark" sounds like a church organ and handbell ensemble playing inside a cloud. The album also nods to Dickow's influences and contemporaries: "World Service"'s glowing, serene ambience is especially Brian Eno-esque, while "Bike Click"'s streaking, woozy noises sound akin to fellow Portlanders White Rainbow or Valet. Soothing and thoughtful, Music for Lamping is atmospheric music that should please fans of all of Strategy's incarnations.