Brokeback: Field Recordings From the Cook County Water Table

Brokeback

Field Recordings From the Cook County Water Table (Thrill Jockey)

Besides being bassist for two of Chicago's best bands, Eleventh Dream Day and Tortoise, Douglas McCombs is emerging as something of a musical visionary. Now with Brokeback, McComb's latest side-project turned full-blown concern, he's put together one of the most unique and enjoyable instrumental albums to come out of the indie rock world since, well, Tortoise's last one. On Field Recordings From the Cook County Water Table, Brokeback's debut, McCombs finds the spaces between Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Western soundtracks and prog-rock icons like Red Krayola and comes up with an entirely original bass-driven sound that exists completely for and through the melody. McCombs plays the Fender six-string bass mostly, occasionally adding his own acoustic bass and the double bass of Noel Kupersmith and Josh Abrams, as well as drums and horns from other Thrill Jockey comrades. Material from past Brokeback singles shows up again ("Returns to the Orange Grove" and "Another Routine Day Breaks"), while "The Great Banks" takes the similarly titled tune from Tortoise's Millions Now Living LP and stretches it out to the extreme, finding melodic resonance between the notes. Thanks to expert sequencing and an overall vision that conjures up an idyllic version of a grey Chicago winter, these retreads come off as part of a greater whole on Field Recordings, a tantalizing debut, and hopefully, an inspiration for others to follow.