Among the world's most imaginative post-rock experimentalists
is Pan*American, Mark Nelson's project outside of Labradford.
QUIET CITY (45'09") is his forth downtempo dissection of the
rock genre. This album holds eight tracks, each an ambient
ballad of enduring and endearing memories; but while the chord
structures on QUIET CITY may be open, the mood is withdrawn.
Nelson's ashen musical forms are drawn upon a dark and
coarse canvas. His guitar-based sketches offer a general plan
without too much detail - just enough to recognize something of
ourselves in the music. The arrangements coincide with
instruments associated with those of conventional rock groups,
but played slower (much slower), more methodically and
sometimes sampled and manipulated. Throughout this album,
the deliberate twang of guitar, the muffled drum kit, baying horns,
accordion moans, the weird swell of noises, sounds turned
inside out, static cutting in, along with the unpredictable hums,
buzzes, dropouts and feedback - while making up the more
unusual elements of the music, all fit together to create a
cerebral rock music devoid of pop's vapid image. The occasional
presence of Nelson's ghostlike vocals adds an unusual
presence to these scratchy songs, but Nelson is a friendly ghost
and his whispered words, somehow comforting, elicit rapt
attention. The result is at times haunting and isolating, while
elsewhere the music is subtle and heartening. Both Shoegazers
and fans of pre-ambient music will appreciate this album - as
this genre drifts and drones towards the future, and other
spaces... Rock is dead? Well, not quite. Anything that survives
deconstruction as many times as rock has deserves our
admiration, attention, and faith.

Tune in to STAR'S END this weekend for music from QUIET
CITY, the latest album by Pan*American

For more on QUIET CITY, access: http://www.kranky.net

-

STAR'S END broadcasts every Saturday night/Sunday morning
from 1am-6am (EDST) on:

88.5fm WXPN Philadelphia, PA
88.1fm WXPH Harrisburg, PA
90.5fm Worton/Baltimore, MD
104.9fm Allentown, PA

and live on the web...

-

Chuck van Zyl
Host of STAR'S END Ambient Radio
http://www.starsend.org