Substatic is the fourth solo album by New Zealand composer Peter Jefferies, released on September 29, 1998 through Emperor Jones. One of his most musically ambitious and emotionally complex efforts, it marks Jefferies' return to the completely instrumental format he had previously explored on his 1987 album At Swim 2 Birds.[1]
| Substatic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 29, 1998 | |||
| Genre | Post-rock | |||
| Length | 40:00 | |||
| Label | Emperor Jones | |||
| Producer | Michael Hill | |||
| Peter Jefferies chronology | ||||
| ||||
Composition
editSubstatic is known to be one of Jefferies' most experimental and musically adventurous recordings. The album comprises five pieces of music, including a lengthy seventeen-minute suite titled "Three Movements". The compositions are based around repetitious rhythms created by Jefferies' pianodrum, a combination of a keyboard and the snare and bass drum sections of a drum set, and are partially improvised.[2]
The use of sampling is prominently used as part of the composition of Substatic. The piece "Index" includes sampled vocals of Jean Smith of Mecca Normal, taken from a 1995 live performance.[3] "Damage" features audience noise which was recorded by Bruce Russell during a live performance. A digeridoo played by Alicia Aaparros Duran can be heard on the album's final track, "Three Movements".[4]
Reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [3] |
Joe Garden of The A.V. Club was also enthusiastic in his review of the album, saying that the music covers "a wide breadth of emotions" and is "highly charged, mostly toward the negative end of the emotional spectrum."[5] Ned Raggett of allmusic gave it three out of five stars and called it a "striking, varied album" with "intentionally and beautifully murky production."[3]
Track listing
editAll music is composed by Peter Jefferies, except "Three Movements" co-written by Michael Hill and Anita Galitis-Anker
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Index" | 7:36 |
| 2. | "Signal" | 6:37 |
| 3. | "Damage" | 5:50 |
| 4. | "Kitty Loop" | 3:51 |
| 5. | "Three Movements" | 16:06 |
Personnel
edit- Anita Galitis-Anker – gong on "Index", bells on "Damage", flute and synthesizer on "Three Movements"
- Michael Hill – production, bass guitar on "Index", "Kitty Loop" and "Three Movements", acoustic guitar on "Index" and "Three Movements", electric guitar on "Three Movements"
- Peter Jefferies – electric piano, grand piano, keyboards, drums, electric guitar, bass guitar
References
edit- ^ "Peter Jefferies: Substatic". Emperor Jones. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
- ^ "Electricity: Peter Jefferies on Peter Jefferies". reocities.com. February 1998. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
- ^ a b c Raggett, Ned. "Substatic". Allmusic. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
- ^ Substatic (booklet). Peter Jefferies. Austin, Texas: Emperor Jones. 1998.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Garden, Joe (29 March 2002). "Peter Jefferies: Substatic". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2012.