Accelera Deck – Pop polling

‘Pop polling’ is my first musical meeting with Accelera Deck, although this is already Chris Jeely’s eighth release. According to the press information, this record is different from his former releases, because on ‘pop polling’ there is more melody involved, which is probably absent in his former works. Those efforts were more ‘ear-splitting’, especially on the ‘Sunstrings ep’, so says the additional information.

The music presented here is nicely chilling and reminds me of a lot of things. First of all, there are clear pop-influences on this album. The tracks are songs; calm post-rockish songs with beautiful melody lines created by harmonic guitar sounds. The soft guitar plucking reminds me of Dirty three and Mick Harris solo-albums. Melancholic, sometimes raw and a little bit sad, but overall very mellow and pleasant.

These are not just regular instrumental guitar songs though. The pretty melodies are distorted by rumbling, stuttering electronic sounds. This experimental approach is alike some acts of the American label Apestaartje, such as Anderegg. Jeely gives you a song, but makes sure the listener has enough room for his own interpretation. He does this by fracturing the blooming clear structures, by exposing the ‘conventional’ guitar sound to decay. All this is delicately served on a nice bed of droning sounds, with splintered feedback, scratchings and scrapings in a way that makes you shiver pleasantly.

If you can’t stand abstractness and grandiose experimentalism, you should leave this record at your local mail-order. If you are an open-minded lover of the avant-garde, you will cherish this release as a little gem.

artist: Accelera Deck
label: Scarcelight Recordings
details: 10 tracks, 58 min, 2005 [SLR39]