Wall Matthews – Spine River: The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967 – 1981
Tompkins Square – Out Now
Very much in the vein of their John Hulburt and Duck Baker releases comes Tompkins Square’s most recent obscure delight in the shape of Wall Matthews, a composer, guitarist and pianist, most known for his work in ambient 70s group The Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble. As the title suggests, Entourage was a multi-member project, but this charming selection of out-takes and unreleased tunes is a mostly solo affair, almost the antithesis of Entourage’s Ceremony of Dreams, a selection of archived pieces released by Tompkins Square in 2017.
The majority of these pieces are shorties, but there are longer ones in there, providing cohesion, like the lovely ‘Minor Suite, Waltz’, a complex composition that really shines a light on Wall’s skills as a guitar player. All of the tricks are here, with harmonics, hammer-ons, pull-offs and some pretty damn technical picking, but fear not, the playing is unpretentious and intelligent. The best part of the tune is in the final third when Wall uses some flat notes to provide a shadier side, before finishing with a high line that almost sounds like woodwind. All of this in four minutes. ‘Minor Suite, Allegro’, in comparison, is a neurotic piece of playing that somehow combines elements of Bill Orcutt and Robbie Basho’s music. To finish off the trio of Minor Suites, ‘March’ is probably the prettiest of the three and the most progressive in terms of narrative. Although unexpected in parts, this tune, with its higher notes and friendlier phrasing, is the most accessible and completes a splendid medley.
The ‘Doves of Venus’ quartet of tunes that make up the first half of side B is a delightful fistful of nuggets, the pick of which is ‘Waltz’, a minute and a half tune that has a gorgeous calm melody and leads into the far more frenetic and sketchy ‘Allegro 2’. The variety of acoustic guitar styles and moods that fit across this two-sided forty-two-minute album will amaze you, and the rate of change from one tune to the next, especially throughout the ‘Minor Suite’ and ‘Doves of Venus’ sections will keep you fascinated. That said, possibly the most alluring tunes of the lot are the two ‘Roping’ pieces, one solo and the other recorded as a duet. Here Wall’s playing jumps around less and provides a more stable platform, which works wonderfully by itself, but is significantly altered by an overlaid higher picked guitar on ‘Roping 2’. It’s hard to pick a winner from the two, but fascinating to try.
In fact, the whole album is endlessly fascinating and a splendid example of the guitar playing prowess of Wall. Tunes like ‘Spine River’ demonstrate his ability to write a piece that is beautiful to hear and played with a minimum of fuss, whereas ‘The Doves of Venus, Allegro 2’ shows a player having fun creating itchy and jumpy notes that still somehow hang together and work as a whole and part of a mini-movement. However, a tune that perhaps epitomises the set and combines elements of many of the styles heard before, is ‘Restless’, a longer piece at four and a half minutes but probably the richest here in terms of content. As the title suggests, it jumps around, but smoothly and without many edges, which helps to provide a textured piece of nuanced music. It is followed by ‘The Dance in Your Eye’, which ends the album and brings in recordings of thunder and subtle percussion to build a strange and wonderful piece. The guitar playing is lovely too, with hints of eastern flavours and a more mystical feel. It fades out to the sound of rain and completes a weird and wonderful track, a perfect way to end such an unusual, diverse album of music from the significantly talented Wall Matthews.
Order via Tompkins Square: http://www.tompkinssquare.com/wallmathews.html
Order via Bandcamp: https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/spine-river-the-guitar-music-of-wall-matthews-1967-1981
A recent live performance: