Wednesday, January 27, 2010

50 Cent Albums: "The Disintegration Loops" by William Basinski

one track of two from album (63:33)
available here

The story of "The Disintegration Loops" is too perfect to be true: William Basinski transferred old decaying reel-to-reel tape loops as the Twin Towers in New York collapsed. The metaphor is inescapable, though oddly inappropriate. But it certainly made his career. While there are four albums in the series, track one here ("dlp 1.1") is likely all you need; certainly it is the best starting point.

While "The Sinking of the Titanic" (see the last entry) is very much a composition, "The Disintegration Loops" is simply the remains of a process. The source material is very minimal; though it transforms, it does so slowly and without anything to which we can ascribe purpose. But the overall mood is similar in its muted palette and dark tonalities.

Personally this is not my favourite but it has become an important piece of the last decade. If you like it, there are many other Basinski releases, many also with long pieces providing great value propositions on eMusic.

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