Bill Baird

Silence! (Big Orange)

Bill Baird

Sunset (Big Orange)

Morning relieves darkness in two ways: Either the sheets mediate a battle of good and evil, or sunlight seeping through miniblinds causes jubilation. Bill Baird, Sound Team’s resident mad scientist and bassist, has his equal share of both, evidenced here by two nearly opposite DIY players released simultaneously but separate. As Nathan Stein’s French horn awakens with whispering, 12-minute opener “Slow Implosion,” Silence! coos under the blankets. A mostly instrumental turn of ebb and flow, this is Baird’s answer to Philip Glass via Tortoise, and it’s beautifully lulling. Sunset catches the last glimpses of daylight, bouncing John Cale’s Vintage Violence off John Lennon. It’s an early-Seventies homage: simple lyrics praising peace and love over rhythmic guitar, with the exception of the album’s closer – a tribal journey matching songwriterdom with experimentation. Either way, it’s gonna be a good day.

(Silence!) ***.5

(Sunset) ***

This article appears in February 9 • 2007.

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