Brian Hall
Brian Hall Performs in the Dark
Outside Records

by William Michael Smith

After several regionally successful rootsy albums with his Snake Forcefield project, the always musically playful Brian Hall has done a not-quite-180o musical turn on Performs in the Dark. The brainy and inventive Mr. Hall, a prolific songwriter who recently had a song covered by Thad Cockrell, has entered his Virginia studio with an assortment of stringed instruments and emerged from the dark with an album sure to at least temporarily baffle even his biggest fans. Quite frankly, I doubt you've ever heard an album quite like this one. And unless you are really musically adventurous, you may not want to. Just so you know right up front, Performs in the Dark is without a doubt not going to be everyone's musical thing.

I've heard lots of music described as "hypnotic," but Performs in the Dark fits that description as well as any album I've encountered. While it is generally "quiet," there is nothing easy-listening about it. In fact, it seems to me there are only two ways to listen it ­ or two frames of mind to be in when you push play. One is hypnotized. The other is meditational. Or ready to meditate, because this is not music to clean house by, not music to wash the car by, not music to read by. Some of it could be Chet Atkins, some of it could be "Sounds of the Whales." Some of it is baroque and intense, some is extremely quiet and spiritual. In fact, this music, which is entirely instrumental except for a few human "sounds," approaches the aesthetic and tonal qualities of Eastern music, yet to an astute ear, there is always that core Western musical element. What I would describe as an experimental free form suite turns out to be quite an amazing intellectual and performing feat, but one has to have patience and powerful concentration to appreciate all that is (and is not!) happening. Probably best achieved by turning off the lights and sitting on the floor in a total blackened room, where there is nothing else but temperature to engage the senses.

In making Performs in the Dark, Hall was influenced by New Zealand guitar maestro and innovator Roy Montgomery.

"I love Roy Montgomery, especially late at night when things are quiet. I find his music to be very spiritual, painting beautiful, longing, homesick pictures of his homeland, South Island, New Zealand, without saying a word. He seems to be one of the most sincere artists I have ever heard. If not, then I have been completely fooled. I wouldn't have made this record if I had not heard and been moved by Montgomery's music. I hope it could possibly comfort others as his music has comforted me."

Hall begins his pieces with simple riffs, which he often repeats as though he were hypnotized or a robot. The movements are subtle, incremental, often barely something one is conscious of when the movement is taking place. When I first heard Performs in the Dark, I immediately assumed Hall was using tape loops, synthesizers, and computer programs to achieve the hypnotic repetitiveness, and was stunned when he wrote back that, no, he plays all of it, simply overdubbing and layering track upon track, except for a few parts played by others. It sounded to me as if he'd burned up a set of Mac Pro Tools making the record, but Hall said other than breaking a few guitar strings, it was pretty much a made-by-hand effort.

"No loops or computers. I don't know how to use a computer with music yet. Mostly electric guitar and a delay pedal. Lots of e-bow too, a small device used with guitar to vibrate the strings, creating a long sustaining note. And some other things like voices, occasional cymbals, and bass now and then. I just tried to create layers that worked. A lot of it was spontaneous 'press Record and see what happens,' then build upon that. I did much of it on my trusty 4-track, as does Mr. Montgomery, and some on an 8-track. So far, I've done all of my albums on these machines."

Hall credits his in-house studio as being a great aid to getting the music he hears in his head down on tape versus the pressure of recording at commercial studios where time is money.

"There is just a pureness to playing and writing music here in the home studio for no other reason than the love of it that's kind of beautiful."

For someone whose previous records fit in the traditional and/or alt.country niche, I wondered what commercial considerations Hall might have had when he made such an abstract and challenging album that includes sounds of everything from cowbells to electric shavers to bird calls to trucks rolling by on a wet highway in the mix. With song titles like "Courtesy of the Impact Growing in the Dark," "Finding Content in the Turbulence," "What the Satellite Heard One Night," "Ditch Lights Pulsating," and "Lewis's Garden between 4:10 & 4:40 PM," Performs in the Dark will definitely not appeal to the good ole boy audience and is likely too 'out-there' for the alt.country crowd that is Halls' natural audience.

"I agree with you that this kind of music isn't for the masses, but I felt it inside and I'm glad I let it come out. There is a volume II from those sessions that may be released eventually to those who may want it. I didn't make this music to please anyone, but if it pleases, then I am overjoyed. Hopefully some folks will understand. I'm not trying to push it upon anyone, but hopefully some will 'feel it' too and enjoy it. It's an emotional record though there are no actual lyrics. There are little stories in the notes and in between them."

"I'd love to make music the rest of my life, as long as I believed in what I was doing and ideas were coming as they are now. But I don't know whose in charge of 'commercial success.' I'm confused by it. Instead of studying it, I usually write a couple more songs and go into my little den and record them. It's tough (having commercial considerations) because I have so much music in me and on my mind, it consumes me and i cannot get enough of it. I'm thankful for all of this. I approach it very sincerely. At the same time, I do not enjoy the business, promotional side of art. I don't understand it. I know those who are savvy with both music and the music business seem to get 'out there' and noticed more often. I don't know. I'll just keep doing what I do and hope eventually good things will happen."

Remember that lost, I'm-out-of-my-depth feeling you got the first time you heard Coltrane or Miles Davis or John McGlaughlin or Sun Ra? That's the feeling you get from Brian Hall's Performs in the Dark. Not easily understandable, not easily interpreted, it is one of those things in life that truly is an acquired taste. Give it a try. I'll bet it grows on you. Or hypnotizes you.

*Thad Cockrell says that he went over to Brian Hall's house and "there was this table just covered in piles of songs. I found two I wanted to record in the first ten I looked at." Hall's next record, Rubbing Shoulders With Echoes and the Angels Did Engage, as well as Performs in the Dark and his Snake Forcefield albums, are available at www.angelfire.com/biz/outsiderecords



Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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