Jeffrey Runnings
Piqued
Independent Project Records
A eulogy of sorts, mostly wordless but still profound, written on bruised clouds of undulating, ethereal effects and whispery whirr by the artist himself, the breathtaking Piqued collects the utterly captivating last recordings of For Against dream-pop factory manager Jeffrey Runnings. It arrives, appropriately enough, in elaborate packaging, a specialty of Independent Records Project.
Posthumously released, the title of his second solo album only hints at Runnings’ insatiable obsession with unconventional post-punk expression, as he devoured everything from the ghosts of 4AD past to the spare minimalism of Young Marble Giant and their gloomy contemporaries The Comsat Angels and Section 25. It’s a fitting sendoff. And not just because of its insular, shape-shifting electric guitar artistry, captured in all its analog glory by an old 8-track cassette machine. Clearly, he relished exploring the instrument’s boundless capabilities and emotional resonance, however stark and controlled the airy environs of his own making. Meticulously pruning it all to reveal the true, marbled essence of each piece, his editing created pockets of barren abandonment begging to be explored. He enjoyed the silences.
The oversized, letterpress envelope the CD comes in — containing postcards of his wildly provocative abstract art and in-depth liner notes from Camilla Aisa lovingly detailing the record’s sacred assembly and a lifetime of curiosity and thirst for sonic invention, these items also available in a vinyl version with a die-cut casing — is an especially nice touch. After all, Runnings’ relationship with Independent Records Project goes back 40 years to a fan letter he wrote as a Nebraskan youth. It started more than a conversation.
As if communicating from the afterlife, Runnings — For Against’s bassist and vocalist and only permanent fixture handling all instrumental chores here and every other aspect, too — offers his own Songs of a Lost World, deep and immersive, like The Cure’s latest. A swirling “Failed Rescue Attempt” and the brooding, yet briskly paced “Just Before Nothing,” pushed by heaving, cold waves, take up for Robert Smith and company, while the serene flow and furrowed brow of “Batman Forever” and its lush piano, as well as a similarly affecting “Glorious Grey,” tick away in a measured, metronome-like cadence of somber eloquence and drifting beauty.
Like a floating, malleable sculpture garden of otherworldly sounds, laid out over dry beats willed to Runnings by Joy Division, Piqued is eternally lost in the ashen ‘80s, enthralled by the Cocteau Twins in a cloaked, angelic “Heretofore” and the ghostly propulsion of “The Courage of Voluntary Trees.” And then there are the extras, four bonus tracks Runnings conjured in the latter part of that decade, two of them previously unreleased, with the heady, spectral gallop of a haunting “Demolition Blast” flying over rolling topography and the droning tunnels of “Follow” pulsating with warmth and hallucinatory bleed. Is your interest Piqued?
