April 6–13, 2000

disc quicks|rock/pop

Robert Rich

Humidity — Three Concerts

(Hypnos)

For garden-variety ambient fans, Robert Rich may not be a household name. But those freaking for an emotional fucking-over love Rich. During his all-night SleepConcerts, layers of sonic brushfire and moss envelop the listener like a layer of skin. The Californian has been making his own instruments (analog synthesizers and acoustic pieces like those from Indochine, India and Africa) since he was 13, toying all along with micro-tonal tunings and feedback. These sounds glide atop the prairie dream-like scrawl of "Beyond" or the mournful "Ceramic Tincture." But Rich is also a fan of industrial noisemongers Throbbing Gristle. Though he doesn’t utilize the same fierce grotesquerie, the same ugly spirit lingers through Rich’s work. So while the layers of sound may seem immediately peaceful, each lengthy expression (the aptly named Humidity is three CDs and over three hours long) rides a range of haunted, slow-motion expressionism. It gives Humidity the feeling of a long car ride as imagined by, say, Ridley Scott. Accidents are possible. Debris is expected. The rattle of a ghost in a rusted out machine ("Bioelectric Plasma"), the crunching of morning moisture against singed grass ("Lost Caverns at Caryatis") and crystal synths dabbing spittle ("Cloud Relapse") take you to a place between Scott’s Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise — a bombed-out but yearningly romantic future, an empty mid-Western desert where death and independence is victory.

—a.d. amorosi

The Gathering with Robert Rich, Sat., April 8, 8 p.m., The Cathedral, 38th and Ludlow Sts., $20, 610-734-1009.