William Carlos Williams
Collection Plate
ShoeString
This has gone around and around, landing on many a reviewer’s lap before settling on my dusty shelf. I can understand why – it’s difficult to put WCW’s peculiar soundscaping (or better yet, “soundscraping”) to words, about as hard as appropriately describing the power of Jackson Pollock’s paintings to someone who’s never seen them. Both Pollock and WCW may be accused of trafficking in artistic noise, but only because the patterns exist on a larger scale than most are used to.
Is there any artistic value to the circular riffing, catastrophic trainwrecks, and disparate instrumental ramblings contained in this record? Not when I put it that way. But there’s something driving and, more importantly, directional about all this racket. The songs go somewhere, a place that’s as difficult to identify as the beginning, but decidedly different. Difficult listening for comfortable places. ShoeString Records, P.O. Box 8952, Atlanta, GA 31106-0952
