ALLOW ME TO QUOTE FROM THE RECENT REVIEW OF SHUTTING DOWN HERE ON THE MUSIC REVIEW WEBSITE PITCHFORK:
In 1990, Jim O’Rourke visited the studio of the Groupe de recherches musicales (INA GRM) in Paris. The experience was monumental for the guitarist, budding composer, and 21-year-old college student. Back at DePaul University in Chicago, O’Rourke’s teachers, he once told an interviewer, “were just trying to mold you into becoming professors.” In Paris, he was meeting his heroes, radical luminaries of the mid-century avant-garde, particularly the concentric genres of musique concrète and acousmatic music. O’Rourke’s latest, Shutting Down Here, is billed as his return to INA GRM 30 years after he made his first pilgrimage.
WELL THIS MAY BE THE BILLING BUT I GUESS IT IS NOT STRICTLY TRUE AS HERE WE HAVE JIM COLLABORATING WITH THE CURRENT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF INA GRM (AND, I MIGHT ADD, NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME).
THE COVER IMAGE OF EMPTY (ABANDONED?) BOATS IS A RARE EXAMPLE OF A JIM O'ROURKE COVER IMAGE HAVING SOME SENSE OF CONNECTION WITH THE MUSIC CONTAINED WITHIN: THERE'S A SENSE OF FLOATING, AN EERIE SENSE OF SOMETHING HAVING VACATED RECENTLY AND DISTURBINGLY. DISSONANT DRONES BOB AND THE STERN GENTLY THUDS AGAINST THE JETTY. SOMETHING IS WRONG.
THE WORK SEEMS A BIT MORE INVOLVED THAN THE AVERAGE STEAMROOM DRONE RECORD BUT ULTIMATELY I'M NOT GREATLY MOVED BY IT. O'ROURKE MIGHT BE REVISITING SOME THEMES FROM HIS YOUTH BUT I DON'T THINK HE'S NECESSARILY BRINGING ANYTHING NEW TO THEM OTHER THAN TECHNOLOGY TO REALISE IT AND PERHAPS RECORDING FIDELITY.
AS SOUND DESIGN THIS IS PRETTY GOOD: WHOLE, RICH, FULLY REALISED, WITH AN EQUIVALENT STEREO IMAGE TO THAT OF A BEAUTIFUL DEEP FOCUS PHOTOGRAPH. BUT THE CONTEXT I HEAR IT IN (MUSIC) MEANS I LOOK FOR CERTAIN THRILLS THAT NEVER QUITE ARRIVE.
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