Like Greeting An Old Friend

Robert Poss – “Songs, drones and fairy dust”

The term “audiophile” has become debased in the last few decades. These days an audiophile is seen as a nerdish record collector type slavishly hunting for the perfect stylus / turntable / amp / speaker combination to enjoy their precious “vinyls”. The term actually means “a lover of sound” and if anyone is a lover of sound in all its forms it is Robert Poss.

Poss has always been fascinated by sound – from the adventures of the psychedelic guitarists of the 60s to the effect of resonant frequencies in “I am sitting in a room” to the simple thrill of an overdriven guitar amplifier on the verge of feeding back. Poss was the founder member and leader of Band Of Susans, a five piece New York based band who released a remarkable catalogue of music between 1987 and 1995. Whereas the majority of bands with three guitarists would concentrate on assault and attack, Band Of Susans created music which was more nuanced, based on drones, the overtones created by harmonic distortion in amplifiers and feedback and an almost architectural approach to layering guitar parts.  Certainly the influence of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca were audible but there was also a pop sensibility on show too – the frequent nods to the Rolling Stones, the melodies lurking within songs like “Now is now” and “Tourniquet”. They were as much an influence on the shoegazing sound as Sonic Youth and MBV but never received the recognition or success that was due to them. Band of Susans broke up in 1995 after releasing their final album “Here Comes Success” (a bittersweet title), extending their drones and dynamics in still thrilling ways and Robert Poss seemed to disappear from the mainstream. However he was still working with sound in one form or another – whether it was a musical collaborator or as a sound recordist, the love of sound continues to this day. In the meantime he has been busy making his music available online, his Bandcamp is stuffed with demos, live recordings, mixes and intriguing ideas – a treasure trove of music for BoS fans.

Followers on Facebook will have seen a flurry of posts over the last few months as Poss has finalised and released his first major album for many years. “Songs, drones and fairy dust” contains almost an hour of new music but will sound instantly familiar to fans of Poss and BoS. Opening track “Secrets, chapter and verse” features a characteristic primal riff surrounded with layers of droning guitars, Poss’ vocals somewhere in the background. It could be prime Band Of Susans, but there’s a new found clarity in the sound, every layer is finely tuned and EQed to perfection, making the song more powerful. And yet the pop heart is still there too, the insistent melody drives into your mind. It’s like greeting an old friend. There are a few songs like this on the album, strangely familiar and comforting in a loud and distorted way. Best of the bunch is “It’s always further than it seems”, a song which seems naggingly familiar until the end where Poss starts singing “It’s blown away” in the style of “It’s locked away” from BoS’ “Love agenda” LP. A nice nod back to his past.

In between the songs are the more experimental pieces of music, all of which are thoroughly enjoyable. Sure, the postman might not be whistling them on his rounds but they are lovely examples of sound manipulation by a master of his craft. “More snow is falling” places the sustained single note guitar lines into the context of a pulsing instrumental of chiming guitars and is utterly hypnotic. Similarly “Imaginary music on hold” is short and sweet, clean guitar tones, a light shuffle beat, it could almost be a Durutti Column track. “Hagstrom fragment” is another classic Poss riff overlayed with multiple soaring modal guitar lines. There’s a psychedelic element to some of the instrumentals too – a few songs swap droning guitars for droning sitars for some head swirling fun. The juddering tremelo which are a feature of a number of songs here –  “Skibbereen Drive”, “Seize green ink”, “Trem 23” and “Memory reposed” – have the feel of Spacemen 3 dronefests, but also feature carefully constructed loops and samples within the haze.

Other songs highlight the drone element yet are viscerally thrilling, the overtones and harmonics spark against each other, it’s a beautiful noise. “Foghorn lullaby” could be a Fripp and Eno outtake and for me is evocative of foggy nights on the South Wales coast listening to the foghorns from Flatholm and Steepholm. “Skew forest” buzzes and howls on a bed of octave leaping drones, a simple idea which merges into soft waves of plangent arpeggios. It’s quite lovely and for me a highlight of the album.

Overall “Songs, drones and fairy dust” is perfectly named. The songs are instant classics which would all fit perfectly into the BoS canon, the drones are always interesting and never overstay their welcome, and the fairy dust is sprinkled liberally over everything – Poss’ sonic signature as clear here as it was in the 80s and 90s. The mix between songs and drones works perfectly – the songs act as breathing spaces between the drones and vice versa. This album is highly recommended if you love Band Of Susans, droning space rock and beautiful noise. Now if you’ll excuse me for an hour, it seems there’s some old albums of Poss’ on Bandcamp I appear to have missed.

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This review was originally published at the very fine Manic Pop Thrills website. Check out what they’re checking out here

https://manicpopthrills.wordpress.com/

“Songs, drones and fairy dust” is available at Robert Poss’ Bandcamp alongside a smorgasbord of other fascinating recordings

https://robertposs.bandcamp.com/album/drones-songs-and-fairy-dust

There is a fascinating new interview with Robert Poss here – highly recommended

https://www.isthismusic.com/robert-poss