Enjoyment of Portal, the fourth album from English one-man psychedelic sound-show Alexander Tucker, lasts about as long as it takes you to read the biography included in its one-sheet: "But if we must draw comparisons then let's say Chicago musician/composer Jim O'Rourke," it reads. "Both are unparalleled in their pairing of the 20th Century avant-garde techniques of composers like Stockhausen and Steve Reich with the archaic sounding free-folk of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Loren Connors." Really? So, Tucker shares marked similarities to three of the musicians in my personal Top-10-Ever Club and to three of its A-list alternates? Sign me up.
Oh, if only one could live in this fantasy land while actually listening to Portal, a record that has almost nothing in common with these referents: Aside from the fact that he plays guitar, Tucker shares mostly nothing with Fahey or Connors, two guitarists whose distinctive styles bear more personality and intricacy than Tucker's paint-by-numbers, up-neck/down-neck repetitive maneuvers. Like Basho, Tucker sings, and the lyrics are sort of vague and cosmic, but that's about it. As for his similarities to Stockhausen and Reich, well, all I can think is that Tucker uses keyboards and bells and electronic layers. And then there's the problem with that O'Rourke comparison, of course: O'Rourke pretty much quit music several years ago, meaning the bulk of the work in question was made before Tucker released his first disc way back in 2000. If we're (untruthfully) comparing Tucker to his predecessor, then the dude's not exactly unparalleled. Yes, you can hear O'Rourke's precedents in his work-- the acoustic guitars and the jazz structures and the incisive lyrics, or his all-out noise or modern classical trips. At his best, O'Rourke sounded like a sharp, deliberate, focused outlet of distilled influences. Portal, on the other hand, sounds like the work of a neophyte enthusiast with a big record collection and an overly tamed menagerie of effects pedals. Maybe this stuff works live thanks to the one-man band spectacle, but that just makes Tucker an unentertaining Bob Log III. Portal is ultimately a long trip to nowhere.
It's dangerous, of course, for an album to be discounted because of the unfulfilled promises of its press materials, and Portal is no different. It's just bad, expectations or no. Imagining a record that will almost be universally labeled as "psychedelic" while aiming more squarely for the center of the road seems impossible. Being a one-man band demands a balance between restraint and gumption, and Tucker either faults heavily on the side of the former or he's that short on ideas. He counters songs that aren't written very well with thick textures that aren't very interesting, his Marc Bolan air abutting sounds you've heard better from contemporaries Bardo Pond, Pelt, and Six Organs of Admittance and predecessors from Simon Finn to Terry Riley. If Pentangle and/or Pink Floyd interest you, Tucker's map will sound familiar, though un-evolved and without real risk. Over an acoustic guitar and neon waves of a distorted electric on "Tusks", he aptly repeats, "Why do it"/ It's only wasted air." "Omni-Baron" plays sinister with manipulated vocals, a brusquely played 12-string guitar and a snarling lead line sandwiched between the two. "Energy for Dead Plants" is bedroom "minimalism," essentially pairing a softened violin drone (La Monte Young...) with bells that splash (Reich...) a pedestrian little melody over the proceedings.
Portal, then, is as listenable as it is harmless, a combination that lends itself to the record becoming a blog-psych favorite, especially given Tucker's name-droppable work with Stephen O'Malley and JOMF. And that gets us back to the one-sheet: The overwhelming volume of music being produced now and its shifting methods of distribution mean we all have to be more vigilant in listening and thinking and responding. None of us will ever be able to hear everything, so the temptation to roll with a booster's hyperbolic-is-a-euphemism praise gets stronger daily. But don't be fooled by the self-made hype. There are dozens of records directly in Tucker's lineage that will take you places Portal brushes right by. Had someone I trusted referenced Fahey and O'Rourke in praising Portal, double goose eggs wouldn't have contained my disappointment. This is background music that withers in any sort of spotlight, empty ideas tacked carelessly to other vacant cartridges. Indeed, listen carefully-- just not to this.
