Progression

Chord's name, and the titles of their tracks -- "EbMaj9 (descent)," "Gm11 (delagic)," "d6 (codal)" -- give away their modus operandi. Each of their pieces is based around a single chord, with each of the group's five members tackling a single note and droning away at it so that collectively the chord is completed. It's probably very interesting for the players to think about this stuff, in a higher-mathematics sort of way, but what effect does the music have on the listener? Well, much of it is quite beautiful; "EbMaj9 (descent)," which opens the disc, is nearly nine minutes of piano and what sounds like bass clarinet but could well be a guitar, droning and humming and generally inducing lucid dreams in the listener. The second track, "Gm11 (pelagic)," is the CD's centerpiece, a 40-minute soundscape that sounds to the untrained ear like something by Main, or "Pure II," the 22-minute track that closed Godflesh's best album, 1992's Pure. It builds slowly, with elements waxing and waning and noises looping and reaching something like a crescendo before receding in favor of a slightly different sound. In its final five minutes, it becomes a huge, almost industrial roar. This sets the stage perfectly for "D6 (codal)," a five-minute piece for acoustic guitar and drones that ends the CD on a meditative, calming note (or chord). [Note: the LP and CD versions contain different tracks. According to the artist and label, they're meant to be played concurrently, so that the music can cycle through a total of six chords, all of which add up to a single epic work.] ~ Phil Freeman