Snapshots / Sidesteps: Co- & Remixes 1995-2005
In which HJR himself becomes the remixer, of his admirers' own works.
As the title indicates, this album features ad hoc "snapshots" created during Roedelius' various side projects. For some, he adorns basic drum tracks or bass rhythms from his cohorts with gossamer layers of sound or slender lines of melody and in doing so transforms the atmosphere from the mundane to something more elusive. On others, HJR radically slows the tempo (like one used to do when playing a 45 rpm single at 33 rpm album speed, only more so here) and then adds effects. The high tempo moments are few and far between - like tumbleweed in a desert - and the mood is generally calm and meditative, with sounds of water, wind, birdsong or white noise wafting in and out while the basic building blocks of the track seem far away as if hissing out of a speaker on the other side of your street. At times, it some of these compositions feel unfinished, as if awaiting additional instruments to be overdubbed, their sparse nature forces you to into deep listening mode to extract the tiny details within. Certainly not an album for those looking for an entry point into Roedelius, but for you completists (yes, we know you're out there) this works surprisingly better than it ought to.