The Peel Sessions

伝説スリントの大魔神ギタリストにしてポスト・ロック守護神、インスト名義で1998年録音ジョン・ピールセッションがDRAG CITYより初出し!

伝説のノイズ / マス・ロックバンド スリントで空気を切り裂く轟音を鳴らし、トータスへ加入後はポスト・ロックの発展を促す変幻自在なギターを鳴らした生き字引デヴィッド・パホ。彼の美学が最も打ち出されたインスト名義エアリアル・Mのジョン・ピールセッション音源がDRAG CITYより初出し!
1998年に録音されたこのジョン・ピールセッションは同年リリースされたシングル『OCTOBER』収録曲"VIVEA"を含む3曲入り。音源の麗しさと柔らかさは勿論、どこかを旅しているかのようなドンドン映像が広がって行くサウンドスケープが凝縮されているのも聴き所。まさかのMV(!)まで誕生したダークさも忍ばせたポスト・ロックの教科書なアンサンブルを楽しんで!

After the dissolution of his groundbreaking mercurial math rock band Slint in the early 90s, David Pajo directed a lot of his creative energy into the post-rock-adjacent, instrumental sprawl of Aerial M. The project was just as conceptually gelatinous as many of Pajos peers in the Drag City scene, changing names from M to Aerial M, then eventually to Papa M when Pajo changed gears from drawn-out instrumental deconstruction to roughshod folk with singing. In the late 90s, however, Aerial M was very much in line with Tortoise, Gastr del Sol, and other Chicago bands experimenting with stretching the limits of rock instrumentation. This Peel Sessions was tracked in March of 1998 near the end of a European tour. While Pajo recorded most of the Aerial M studio recordings solo, for this tour (and the Peel Session) he was joined by drummer Tony Bailey, bassist Cassie Berman, and second guitarist Tim Furnish. This quartet version of the band brings a new vibrancy to the already intricate songs. There are just three selections here, but each one contends with or bests its original version. "Skrag Theme" is a dark, slow-burning tune; this rendering stretches out past the 13-minute mark and the full-band treatment makes it sound more akin to Slint than the comparably mellower (and at about four minutes, much shorter) version that appears on Aerial Ms self-titled 1997 LP. "Vivea" would appear on 1998s October EP, and the Peel Sessions version breathes and fluctuates in a different manner, driven by dual guitars rather than the piano that leads the studio version. The slowcore-paced closing track "Safeless" dates back to 1995, first released on a 7" single under the M moniker. The original version (a rare recording from the project where Pajo wasnt the sole musician, and one where incidentally Berman was the bassist) builds into an angsty snarl, and with The Peel Sessions, the band draws out that build snarl at length, pushing the intensity of the song until stopping abruptly 12 minutes in. The Peel Sessions is an exciting addition to the Aerial M/Pajo catalog, one that gives listeners an idea of the kind of impact the project might have had if the more widely heard albums were tracked with a live band willing to expand on Pajos ideas. ~ Fred Thomas