Scott Tuma
Hard Again
[Truckstop/Atavistic; 2001]
Rating: 7.0
Souled American got the proverbial shaft. It's a well-known story, but one that
bears repeating. Forming in Chicago in the late 80s, the band released four
remarkable albums of howling roots-rock deconstruction before losing their
stateside distribution when Rough Trade's American division went belly up.
Anachronistic and difficult to classify, these four albums-- Fe,
Flubber, Around the Horn, and Sonny (now back in print
on tUMULt Records)-- were largely ignored at the time of their release, and
the situation was not helped by infrequent touring and a lack of press savvy.
More recently, the band has toiled in near obscurity, releasing two albums on
German labels since the mid-90s. In the end, though, Souled American was
probably just too arty for a genre that puts such a high value on "authenticity."
Fortunately, the band seems to prefer its cult status.
Of course, it's hard not thinking about what might have been. The more or less
contemporaneous Uncle Tupelo (which eventually split into Wilco and Son Volt)
was handed the alt-country banner and basked in the spotlight while Souled
American quietly pursued their craft in the darkness. "No Depression"-- the
movement and the accompanying magazine-- could have just as easily been called
"Feel Better" (the final track on Fe), if given a slightly different set
of circumstances.
Now, more than a decade after that first Souled American album, the alt-country
"movement" has become more of a twitch. Hype, always a fickle mistress, has
left the No Depression magazine cold, and it's cheating heart has moved
on to other lovers. For a while it was Britpop, then a drunken orgy with
countless electronic artists, then a debauched evening with post-rock before
moving on again.
Souled American's guitarist Scott Tuma decided to move on as well, parting with
the band amicably after the 1996 release of Notes Campfire. Judging from
the all-instrumental Hard Again, his first solo album, Tuma just wanted
to move away from traditional song structure. Taking a more expressionistic
approach-- using multi-generation guitar loops, organ drones, skittish
percussion, and banjo so far removed from "fiery bluegrass breakdowns" that it
almost sounds like traditional Japanese Koto music-- Hard Again sees
Tuma teaming up with Dirty Three percussionist Jim White and Michael Krassner
of the Boxhead Ensemble, two groups with which he shares an aural affinity.
Opening with the cold and distant "Beautiful Dreamer," Tuma eases you into the
sound of Hard Again as if easing you into icy water-- that is, very, very
slowly-- deliberately setting one guitar tone against another in an almost
painterly fashion. And like many tracks on Hard Again, the song ends
abruptly, suggesting it was born out of longer improvisational sessions.
"March" begins similarly, but builds to a thicker texture reminiscent of
Robert Fripp and Brian Eno's collaborations, while the aptly titled "JimWhite
Drums" swirls droning guitar over what sounds like a sped up tape of Jim White
assembling a drum kit rather than playing it. The title cut is the most
song-oriented track here, with a definite beginning, middle, and end. But
"Sermon," the closing song, best sums up the album's mood: meditative and
austere, but majestic, as an otherworldly organ echoes through what sounds like
a long-abandoned cathedral.
Anyone familiar with the latter-day, slow-as-molasses Souled American albums
will see Hard Again as a natural extension, or at least as an abstract
interpretation of where that band was heading. Fans of the above mentioned
Dirty Three and Boxhead Ensemble-- as well as David Pajo or even Neil Young's
Dead Man soundtrack-- will find solace within these ethereal sounds.
-Jason Nickey, September 27th, 2001