Gate - The Wisher Table

This release from New Zealand noise rock guitarist Michael Morley completes a trilogy for the Table of the Elements label that began with the drone masterpiece The Dew Line and was followed the equally impressive, if a little off kilter, Monolake. The third installment is a continuation the desolate themes of isolation that made the previous records discomforting explorations of lucid guitar texture's and rambled vocal desperation. The vague song forms reflect the music of his other project, Dead C, in some manner, yet, at the same, that is probably the only other comparison to this unique brand of noise shaping, feedback-drenched minor-key strum underlined by droning loops and the noise of corroding speakers. Like fellow New Zealand noise groups Rain and Flies Inside the Sun, Gate's charm lies in the apparent homemade isolation that gives them a tone unlike anything else. Such outlandish experimentation could not occur in the calculation of a studio environment, like a feedback-drenched minor-key strum underlined by droning loops and the noise of corroding speakers. Somehow this is a little hard to hold the attention, yet, as whole, this record is fine and bold statement, and is certainly a vital album in the spectrum of '90s post-rock and noise music. That Gate has worked with guitarist Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth may give an indication of the six string-havoc on offer here.