Mcbride, Brian / When The Detail Lost Its Freedom
Album: When The Detail Lost Its Freedom   Collection:General
Artist:Mcbride, Brian   Added:Feb 2006
Label:Kranky  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2006-04-16 Pull Date: 2006-06-18
Week Ending: May 14 Apr 23
Airplays: 1 2

Recent Airplay
1. May 07, 2015: The Sunset Life
The Guilt Of Uncomplicated Thoughts
4. Apr 21, 2006: The Top Shelf (coachella!)
The Guilt Of Uncomplicated Thoughts
2. Jul 17, 2009: Trailways
Latest Sonata
5. Apr 19, 2006: the evil twins
I Will
3. May 12, 2006: The National Congress Of Vaselines
Piano Abg

Album Review
Ben Wolfson
Reviewed 2006-04-15
Ambient chamber (mostly) instrumentals. On many of these “room noise” is listed as an instrument, which should give you some idea about the overall aesthetic. The dominant feel wavers between muted happiness and muted melancholy (but whatever it is, it's damn muted).
Best: 9, 12, 2
2: Plaintive backwards sustained guitar with gentle, slightly irregular muted piano plinking. Ambient washes in the background.
3: Ever-so-slightly rumbly “muffled bells” playing two repetetive (related) four-note patterns. Guitar swells above, and it's actually fairly hard to tell where the piano comes in. The guitar gradually gains prominence, and new threads enter, for a somewhat oceanic effect.
4: Short (1:44) solo guitar. Strummed chords that blur together, with a pleasant melodic line later.
5: Starts off with rustles and some staccato guitar strums; this track more melodramatic than the others, and more like a pop song, with more instrumental variation, more attention paid to an actual bass line, played on the piano. Indeed, there are vocals here, in a sort of hushed Neil Halstead mode. What is he singing about? Who knows. Some ethereal female wordless vox in the second half.
6: Guitar + quartet (presumably string), playing relatively short (ca. 5”) swells, with a bit of silence between each. After 3:33, a violin starts playing longer lines in the background, joined later by either another one or a viola, starting to connect the swells together.
7: Shimmering solo guitar, more or less discrete at first and then flowing together. Reminiscent of Robert Fripp's soundscapes.
8: Undulating bits of guitar drone; towards the end (about -1:00) some sampled talking put in, and the guitar starts fingerpicking individual notes.
9: Trumpet section and (wordless) vocals on this track, which has a beautiful trumpet solo. Starts out somewhat low.
10: Undergoes a transition from being fairly optimistic-sounding and higher up to being a lower, less varied drone about 2/3 of the way through.
11: Low rumbles (and what sounds like someone inhaling very occasionally) underly the whole track; over them some higher, opaque keyboard stabs and short Fripp-sounding guitar drones play.
12: Ever so vaguely reminiscent of “Exit Music (for a Film)”. Instrument is listed as “chamber ebo”, whatever that is; sounds just like a few highly treated strings. In particular, there's a very electronic-sounding violin playing the main melody, while less-treated lower instruments (cellos and basses?) play a bass drone.

Track Listing
1. Overture (For Other Halfs)   7. I Will
2. Piano Abg   8. Stringer To Light Feed Frenzy
3. A Gathering To Lead Me When You Are Gone   9. The Guilt Of Uncomplicated Thoughts
4. Prelude   10. For Those Who Hesitate
5. Our Last Moment In Song   11. Silent Motels
6. Retenir   12. Latest Sonata