Wally Scharold

Mirthkon

With this outing, Oberlin's own senior Composition major Wally Scharold gives a varied mix of mischievous musical genre-benders. The first track, "Fluebna" presents a taste of things to come: crunchy, metal-like riffs from drum and guitars are layered with meandering, scat-like vocals and rapid melodic lines, before the piece is gradually deconstructed through instrumentation and tempo changes.

"Riktus Q1-A" slows things down, employing bowed bass and jingling keychains to create a dissonant minimalist landscape, over which float distant saxophone notes. The third track, "A Coven of Coyotes," is a sort of surreal bop romp, progressing with the aid of synthesizers and vibraphones through fast-moving and difficult lines.

Sometimes Scherald's musical directions are difficult to follow ‹ a list would surely include muzak, bop, funk, lounge, avante-garde, and atonal compositional techniques, among other things. Yet all of it seems to be held together by his rhythmic insight, creating a unity which allows a playful and often ironic interplay of the various voices. "Daddylonglegz," the most thickly scored offering on the disc, is particularly satisfying for its dynamic and complex interplay of percussion, saxophones and brass.

Nevertheless, one cannot help but feel that the minimalist guitar experimentation which fills out much of the disc becomes homogenous and didactic after a point, at least to all but the most sympathetic of listeners. Works such as "Homage to Derek" and "Cleft Loggerz," while individually appealing, become a sort of detritus which arguably bogs down the album.

This critic was pleased to find respite in the surreptitious pop hooks which waft to the surface on occasion, as in the irresistible melodic hooks of "Eggs Benedict." The piece employs doubled trombone and synth to create a loungy feel - as if, by way of metaphor, one were drinking martinis with martians on Saturn, while listening to Esquivel, and pleasantly so. Individual qualms aside, the collection creates a pastiche of musical juxtapositions in which many will no doubt find various moments of pleasure, and which is remarkable in its originality and daring.