Today's topic: "The Trumpet: Still Relevant?" It's an instrument that's been in use for hoary centuries, but one that ran out of new territory sometime around the mid-70s. I'm not saying the trumpet has lost its usefulness in today's musical environs, but as far as new voices and sounds go, the old brass horn seems pretty tapped out, with only the rare blowhard able to break free from the usual comparison glossary: smoky film noir soundtracks, the six or seven phases of Miles Davis, and Bacharachian flugel-syrup. In all likelihood, a reviewer at Jazzfork.com is saying the exact same thing about the guitar right now, but hey, that's relativism for you.
Not that Andy Diagram, hornman for Merge duo Spaceheads, doesn't give instrument resurrection the old college try. Virtually every sonic character the trumpet has ever assumed makes an appearance on Low Pressure, from scratchy archival footage sputtering toots to fusion-era wah-wah squawks to legion-of-overdubbed-Diagram big-band recreations. It's an impressive encyclopedia of trumpet sounds-- which is why it's all the more disappointing that they're not put to very many compelling uses.
Because Spaceheads has a clinical case of technophilia, a distracting over-dependence on loops, electronics and programming pervades Low Pressure. And thanks to the trumpet at center stage, it's hard to classify the twosome as anything but a jazz act. But if nothing else, at least they're a jazz act trying desperately to update the form by soldering in some serious laptop percussion. Maybe blame can be placed on the fact that the album contains three remixes (two co-manipulated by drummer Richard Harrison), but all too often, the machinery overwhelms the humanity, anime-style.
This effect is most notable with "On a Clear Day," where Harrison and co-remixer Mick Routledge pile on layer upon layer upon layer of percussion track to build up a dense club grind lacking all but the barest of melodies; the result is intriguing, if not unforgettable. Melodic droughts are the biggest shortcoming of Spaceheads, as Diagram prefers slow slides and harmonized blasts to repeated themes and discrete note packages.
The duo obviously prioritizes texture over songcraft-- a noble calling, to be sure-- but the environments created don't have the consistency to sustain the album. Low Pressure features too many jarring moments to be ambient (like the almost guitar-like trumpet slashes of "Storm Force") and too many drawn-out contemplative segments to be a groove session (see the 10-minute long synth swells and arrhythmic rattlesnake maracas of "Red Shift"-- not my cup o' ambient tea).
Occasional successes show up to the party, like the beach-cop TV theme songs set amongst sinister electronics of "The Lugano Affair" and "The Hut", with its uncustomary focus on a single groove throughout. But most tracks simply stretch too long and change gears too often to hold interest or stake out long-term memory territory, coasting along in a low-pixel blur that obfuscates where one track ends and the next begins. Even while Spaceheads' aims don't necessarily jibe with my listening preferences, it's apparent that the content of Low Pressure is inferior to same-ballpark artists like Isotope 217 and Chicago Underground Duo. The trumpet might yet be revived from its current state of throwback purgatory into newfound relevance, but Spaceheads don't seem to be the act holding the defibrillator.
