This release from instrumental drone trio Setting (Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joseph Westerlund) sees them complete a trio of live albums before they drop their second studio effort next year. at Public Records was recorded last spring when the band descended on Brooklyn to play a bill with Philadelphia band BASIC (previous Setting live albums at Eulogy and at Black Mountain College Museum were recorded in the band’s home state of North Carolina).
In a sense, this set plays out as more of a sibling piece to Eulogy than Black Mountain, with a darker and more urgent feel in places than the latter. After an edgy start, combining percussion that sounds like ghosts in the attic with eerie beeps and an insidious, undulating drone line, the drums start penetrating with a super cool, complex part that works beautifully with the electronics and throbbing drones. The urgency peaks at the fourteen-minute mark, before easing into II, a track built on a feisty but quite (deliberately) ramshackle drum line that sits on spacious, bright drones, giving the piece a sense of euphoria and abandon.
The strange, spidery banjo introducing III immediately gives the piece a feeling of unease and tension that sharp splinters and lone banjo drum hits, as well as a steadily building, low melody, heightens. Nathan’s banjo in particular, perhaps played with a stick or some kind of dulcimer hammer in places, gives this piece a more rustic, acoustic character that I love and that nicely balances the more intense, electronic-focused tracks. Clocking up over fifteen minutes, the music takes its sweet time in developing, with notes, fragments of melodies and sounds filling some of the space and the rest being left to keep this one spookily airy. It’s totally ace and I would have loved to have experienced it live.
IV is an immediately darker piece, with rumbling, almost helicopter-style drones sharing the space with tinkling percussion that adds a touch of light to a heavy, drony soundscape. The arrangement keeps building, with odd electronic sounds appearing briefly among the dense drones, before a higher note eases the pressure after about seven minutes. It feels like the aftermath of a storm, with electronic sounds resembling birds popping up, but there is still tension here, in a setting very different to the organic, human sounds of the previous track. All four pieces stand out in very different ways, but together they make a whole that is one hell of a listening experience. A worthy conclusion to a trio of live albums that feel as relevant and accomplished as Shone a Rainbow Light On.
at Public Records (September 5th, 2025) Self Released