Description
Dancing About Architecture is a – partially instrumental – album by the American singer, songwriter, and bassist trip (a.k.a. Trip Wamsley), independently released on Alternate Route Records in December 1996. “Solo Bass and various ensemble tunes. This was recorded on a non-existent budget. There may be scrangs, mung and some artifacts in the sound. It is not the fault of your gear. Indeed no.”
Featuring Trip Wamsley on bass, rhythm guitar (tracks 6 and 10), and vocals (as well as programming). Drums provided by Todd Bragg (tracks 1, 4, and 10, as well as snare on track 7) and Garett Buell (track 5, as well as surdo on track 7). Vocals by Danielle Glenn on track 4.
Not to be confused with the Brits, this Trip is a solo bassman. He plays his bass with altitude turning it into a lead instrument and creating an album which only has three “songs”, the rest are ambient instrumentals. Kicking off with the rocking «Oh But No». Trip proves to be a passionate singer and this excellent track might lull you into a false sense of security unless you heed this warning! Prepare to be absolutely astonished by what follows! «Non-Amorphous Vertical Density For The Moderately Sagacious», yep. that’s the name of the track but it’s not just the quirky name of the piece which grabs attention, wait until you hear the car defying feats that Trip performs solo on his instrument! I just about recovered from that one when Boom! «’The Annual Thing» kicks in with more incredible solo playing. This man can do things with a bass that shouldn’t be legal! Excuse me sir. I am arresting you for being brilliant on bass in a built up area…would you like to accompany me to the station? Talking of accompaniments, “Sledgecramp 28 In Three Parts” features contributions from members of Caedmon’s Call (Trip was their original bass player for about three gigs) and broadens out the sound to a fuller ambience. Most interesting is «As We Ponder Big Things» which is simply a Garrett Buell improvised drum solo with Trip playing along! The other songs with Trip’s vocals, «’One More Time» and «Harder» both work effectively again showing the breadth of what he can achieve. This album is scarily good and you’ll be hearing more from Trip because he’s about to sign for Steve Taylor‘s Squint label but don’t wait until the second album, get this! Frankly, it’s incredible! Trip is destined to be to the bass what Phil Keaggy is to the guitar! [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, February 1998]
This is the confession of a music reviewer. Trip’s booking agent sent me Dancing About Architecture many months ago, but I have selfishly kept this project to myself. It never leaves my car’s CD changer. Everyone who has received transport from me has also received a healthy dose of this remarkable musician’s genius – the van itself vibrates in sympathy with this low-end musical marvel. Yet conveying this electric bassist’s virtuosity on paper has been, well, like dancing about architecture – a simile usually attributed to Frank Zappa, but credited to Robyn Hitchock in the album notes of this self-produced, home-recorded gem.
Fortunately, neither the limitation of the word nor the traditional role of the bass guitar in rock music have kept Trip from communicating. His five-string fretless instrument easily travels between smooth jazz, hard electric rock and world beat, exploiting such un-bass techniques as double picking, fingerboard taping, alternative tunings, harmonics, and on-the-fly tuning. The easily identifiable techniques are also there – slap bass, fretless note shaping, and jazz stylings framed by sustained notes so low they are experienced resonating deep within the body more than they are heard. The project is evenly split between solo pieces, ensemble instrumentals, and songs. Trip has mastered the intense, on-pitch, high emotion vocals so necessary for a singer/songwriter, and writes thoughtful, oblique lyrics to back it up. His three songs, «Oh, but No», «One More Time», and «Harder» are guideposts for the project’s instrumental excursions, and exemplary writing by a Christian artist in the world, but not of it.
Because Trip is an independent artist limited for now to the Louisiana and Texas music scenes, this CD may be the only opportunity the rest of us will have to experience his dark, deep world. It is with deepest regret that I remove Trip from my CD changer to make way for other review projects. While I cannot articulate why, these tunes are settled deep within my bones forever. [Linda T. Stonehocker, The Phantom Tollbooth, 11/11/98]
CD tracklist:
01. Oh But No
02. Non-amorphous Vertical Density For The Moderately Sagacious
03. The Annual Thing
Sledgecramp 28 in 3 Parts:
04. A) The Acquisition Of Plutonium
05. B) As We Ponder Big Things
06. C) On The Cusp Of Everything And Nothing
07. On More Time
08. Vegaard’s Unwilling Baptism
09. Civilization
10. Harder
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://tripwamsley.bandcamp.com/album/trip-dancing-about-architecture
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.