An Exercise in Listening

In listening to many hours of music, I’ve gotten to the point that in the first few minutes of a album, I can dismiss the album as being boring, clichéd, a uninteresting style, etc. And during the first five minutes of listening to Execrise’s I (Pan y Rosas), I was very close to skipping the album as it appeared just to be processed drum beats that bordered on the monotonous.

But something kept me listening and I am glad I did. It wasn’t that the album was released by Pan y Rosas as Keith Helt always releases interesting and difficult work – at the time of listening I had no idea that Exercise’s album was from this Chicago netlabel. Lately, I have gotten quite particular about what I am downloading and putting on my iPod, so that may have helped me persevere, except that I have recently skipped some albums after a short, cursory listen.

As I went back to listen to Excerice’s record again, I paid attention to those first few minutes and tried to decipher what it was that kept me listening. As best as I can figure out, it was the attitude of Leonardo Amico and Leonardo Belardinelli that made it to the tape, an attitude seemed to say, “Just listen to our music, we know what we are doing.” And Amico and Belardinelli indeed do.

Excercise’s I is only two tracks, the first of 20 minutes and the second 13. Each track is a study in the deconstruction and construction jerry-rigging of sound and beats. In the American vernacular, jerry-rig is process of organizing or constructing something in a crude or improvised manner. Using this process, Amico and Belardinelli have put out an accomplished album that takes us through various sounds whether rock beats, micro-tones or noise. A great listen.

Artist: Exercise
Title: I
Netlabel: Pan y Rosas
Released: 2 July 2012
Download mp3: zip
CC BY-NC-ND