[rating=8.00]
First impressions don’t count for much as far as Ryley Walker is concerned. That works to his benefit given the fact that his music strays beyond preset parameters, crossing the boundaries from solitary shoegaze to sounds of a decidedly abstract variety. Like Tom Waits, Scott Walker, John Cale and Carla Bley, Walker doesn’t hold to distinct melodic structure, but rather allows his own internal rhythms to take him where they will.
Based in Chicago, Walker’s released five previous albums over the course of the past decade, experimenting with all sorts of sonic sequencing and odd, often out of sync instrumentation. It’s hard to put a definitive handle on his eclectic approach, mostly because it tends to vary from track to track, but jazz of the more experimental variety clearly impacts his proviso. As a result, listeners to Deafman Glance aren’t likely to find a connection through any sort of instant accessibility. While songs such as “Expired” and
“In Castle Dome” suggest he’s obsessed with melancholia, the tracks that follow allow for more atonal instincts. Some of the material simply seems disjointed — the odd time signatures of “Accommodations” and the ambient atmospherics of “Can’t Ask Why” being more obvious examples — but at other times the music leaves more of a luminous effect. That’s especially true when applied to the aural imagery of “Opposite Middle,” the pensive, peaceful drift of “Telluride Speed” and the lovely “Spoil with the Rest” in particular.
Imagination and ambition play an important part in Walker’s MO, and while Deafman Glance isn’t the sort of thing that’s always easily grasped, it does offer more subtle pleasures that are revealed with each subsequent encounter. An adventurous effort, one unconcerned with tapping a template, it suggests Walker is an exceptional artist that an open-minded audience would be prone to reckon with.
