First, David

First, David

Same Animal, Different Cages Vol. 4: Sitar Music Of North Brooklyn

Fabrica

Sitar Music of North Brooklyn, the fourth volume in American composer David First’s “Same Animal, Different Cages” series, is perhaps one of his strongest musical statements since he radically re-invented how to approach the acoustic guitar in volume one. While First’s sitar improvisations are engrossing and pleasurable to hear, easy listening they are not. This is First challenging himself and challenging you, the listener, to grapple with his unorthodox and experimental approach to this Hindustani instrument. Popularized in the West by Ravi Shankar and its incorporation into western rock and pop music by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the sitar can still be heard in some jazz, new age and psychedelic music. However, it is rarely featured in modern experimental music, where composers rely heavily on synthesizers and classical western instruments.  As he has demonstrated with this series, First’s exploratory improvisations are less about finding a melodic groove, locking into it and expanding on it, and more about bravely taking on the challenge of delving head-first into the unknown, purposefully avoiding the familiar, and thus creating something unexpected. It’s musical experimentation in its purest form. On this occasion First is joined on a few pieces by a percussionist, which adds a more rhythmic structure to the performances. While those pieces begin to resemble or remind the listener of Indian raga, they largely avoid classical Indian raga structure, a far more honest approach than attempting to co-opt, appropriate or jump on the classical Hindustani music bandwagon. Much like he...

First, David

Same Animal, Different Cages Vol.3: Civil War Songs (for Solo Harmonica)

Fabrica

In the third volume of the Same Animal, Different Cages series, American composer David First does a 180 from the purely sound-for-sound’s sake explorations of the first two volumes and gives eleven emotional outpourings performed exclusively on solo harmonica. Despite this minimalist single-instrument approach, First makes each of these songs sound fully realized; anything more would simply be crowding the sonic space.  First has produced perhaps one of the first folk-music responses to the era of Trump and right-wing populism. But it’s more than that as well. The synth-like otherworldly sounds First coaxes out of his instrument are a revelation—he has done nothing less than reinvent the harmonica. Organic, soulful, melancholy and uplifting, Civil War Songs is protest music made for these times. In the face of this horrifying administration and the racist and fascist goons it has allowed out of the woodwork, First offers up a wordless experimental album that celebrates solidarity, friendship, community and principled resistance. Rather than providing an escape, these hymns wake one out of that paralyzing feeling of despair, delivering renewed focus and the capability to fight on.

First, David

(vol. 2) Same Animal, Different Cages: Solomonos For Analog Synthesizer

Fabrica

On this second installment in the Same Animal, Different Cages series of tonal investigations, David First dons his no-madder-than-you scientist’s lab coat and proceeds to fire up and overheat his newest subject, a Korg MS-20. The resulting six tracks are characterized by rapid-fire analog oscillations, relentlessly and exuberantly pitched up and down to suit their performer’s curiosity. Solomonos for Analog Synthesizer is synth-based experimental music rooted in actual experimentation. Once again, First delivers two sides of vinyl that are equally hypnotic, intriguing and challenging.

First, David

(vol. 1) Same Animal, Different Cages: Études For Acoustic Guitar

Fabrica

Fabrica Records announces the first volume in the Same Animal, Different Cages series by American composer and improviser David First. On Études for Acoustic Guitar, First twists and bends notes from his steel-string acoustic guitar, an instrument traditionally associated with American folk, country and blues music. And in fact, those genres are central to First’s explorations here, constituting portions of a palette that also encompasses jazz and Indian classical music. In this series of stylistic hybrids, an expansive tonality is propelled with rhythmic authority. The effect is similar to that of tape manipulation, or to the challenges posed to the inner ear by Phil Niblock’s shifting dissonances. It’s almost as if the room itself speeds up and slows down as First performs in it, anchoring himself in three humble dimensions and letting time do what it will. The Same Animal, Different Cages series serves as the latest chapter in the oeuvre of a musician whose defining quality is arguably his curiosity. First asks the right questions, and there are no wrong answers. Subsequent volumes in the series will include similar explorations on analog modular synthesizer, harmonica, sitar, computer, voice and electric guitar.