Andrew Coleman
Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt
[Thrill Jockey; 2001]
Rating: 8.8
Those choke-hazard tchotchkes Animals on Wheels no longer fascinate Andrew
Coleman. Drill-n-bass has lost its appeal, too, over the years. Thus, Coleman has
abandoned his former alias and style and is all the better for the switch. As
Animals on Wheels, Coleman gave the world two albums of breakbeat encrusted noise,
and as such, sat on the fringes of the Ninja Tune roster. Now recording for
Thrill Jockey, Coleman finds himself comfortable, his avant-leaning precocity
embraced by the label that also writes royalty checks for Mouse on Mars, Nobukazu
Takemura, and Oval.
Though trading in the frenetic energy of his Animals on Wheels' releases, Coleman
is still pursuing juxtapositions. Whereas Animals on Wheels' Designs and
Mistakes, and its less frantic successor, Nuvol I Cadira, sought to
contrast wounding shards of breakbeats with warm fuzzy melodies, Everything
Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt looks for clashes between elegance and
distortion. These distortions, created with antiquated 16-bit equipment and
soundcards, imbue Coleman's gorgeous melodies with an aliased corona that works
in harmony with the very appropriate title that Coleman has chosen for this
collection.
Emerging from low frequency waves, "Too Early By Far" pits white noise against a
harmonium drone and a piano melody. Despite the white noise gathering supporters
from the clapped-out percussion synth Coleman uses, the exuberant piano melody
excels and is greeted at the end by a honking bass clarinet. "Pi Four" finds
Coleman's piano trading lines with a frazzled, piercing, possibly
guitar-in-origin figure, while a Boards of Canada-style rhythm ensures that all
punches are above the belt. The crazy calliope of "Escalator Apartment" wrestles
with a Nuvol I Cadira-ish breakbeat clatter.
The Bucephalus Bouncing Ball
melody and cracked percussion of "Plot Lost Sixteen" take me back to agitated
Sunday afternoons, apparently lazy, but in fact fraught with nascent nastiness.
"Vocational Shouter" recalls Aphex Twin's fuzzy masterpiece, "Tha," with its
anchorless, sinewy chords grasping for just a moment's coherence. "Hang Up
Season" carries on the approximation of sense begun with "Vocational Shouter."
About the exerting synthline, shrill lines force their way in and out of the
background like the angels of death from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
During "Wider Ignorance," Coleman subverts a routine downtempo drum pattern by
sideswiping it with electronic piano chords and a melody borrowed from Salvador
Dali's mother's musical jewelry box. Closing the album with the spacious-but-weighty
"Curse of Knowing" Coleman proves one final time that he's as fascinating a
pianist as he is a drum machine operator. With Everything Was Beautiful and
Nothing Hurt, Andrew Coleman has accomplished the fusion of avant-garde
electronics and poetic pianism. Coleman serenely succeeds where Richard D.
James' Drukqs faltered: Coleman wasn't faking when he came up with his
album title.
-Paul Cooper, December 17th, 2001