Bill Horist is a Seattle based guitarist who is very highly regarded as a musician and composer, and who has collaborated on many recordings. ‘Covalent ‘Lodge is his latest album, a collection of nine (primarily instrumental) tracks of guitar and cello folk rock, that varies from ambient to mediaeval in style. Horist’s guitar work is exceptional, and there is little that can be criticised in terms of musical quality. The song titles are extremely avant garde, such as ‘In the House of the Specious Phylum’, ‘The Breadth-Width Isthmus’ and ‘Smeared Slate Gales Warped in Oozing Windows’!
So, why only four stars? Because it doesn’t hold one’s interest. In fact the titles of the tracks are probably the most interesting thing about them. Basically one track flows into another, and there are some pauses during tracks that I had to check whether I was still on track one, or whether I was now listening to track two. Whilst listening to this I had the vague feeling that some of the instrumentalism was similar to some of the more depressing moments on REM’s ‘Automatic For The People’.
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It’s a pity. I did try hard to like this, but ultimately it didn’t move me. I am sure that there will be an audience somewhere out there that will think that this is the best album ever, but I’m not one of them. In the future, I fully expect to find this on repeat on a CD player in a shop that sells crystals in Glastonbury. I’ll walk past.
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