Give the guitarist a plectrum, and they’ll riff; give the painter a brush, and they’ll draw. Give Melissa Auf der Maur a studio, and convention goes out the window. The opening piece on this record, “Active Heart”, is awash with reverb, pressing the patience of the listener, not forgetting their eardrums. More happily, the follow-up tune “…And the Next Day” is a more plaintive affair: gentle acoustic strums, lit up by a narrator searching for a companion to seal this empty heart. The blood rushes from the body, out of the fingers producing chord shapes on this wooden instrument; the heartache is apparent.
BASS WOMB ROOM: My ’90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recordings, an admitted mouthful of a title, shows the artist in full control. Formerly the bassist for 1990s outfit Hole, Auf der Maur is an avant-garde performer; the sounds of rats scurrying around the gutter on “In the Reflection” won’t appease everyday pop fans. The record’s vibe seems to be Yoko Ono, a midway point between the sound collage of Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and the post-trauma rock of Fly. “Water Wars” is something of an instrumental, a jangly guitar playing to the sound of rain pitter-pattering on a roof.
“Flesh Flush” lives by the title, a cascade of water going down the toilet. It’s not in my nature to compare music to poo, so I’ll swiftly move on to a superior piece. “Is She Is”, a hypnotic tune bolstered by backward sonics, an experiment in form much as “Revolution 9” was for the Beatles in 1968. The piece concludes with a monologue, a diatribe of fear about the power men hold over women all around the globe. Another formidable recording is the bass-heavy arrangement of “Love Is the Drug”, which slows the tempo to make Bryan Ferry‘s ballad feel more sultry and stoic.
“River’s Dream” opens with the voice of a child reading a fairy tale, with rock instruments chipping and chiming all around them. This dissonance in tone elevates the soundcraft, a dichotomy of layers: light and shade, night and day. BASS WOMB ROOM: My ’90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recording is an evocative work, and not one that is easy to sit through on first listen. More than that, it is suffused with melody; “Sea of Tranquility” holds a beautiful central melody. The guitar, presumably played by Auf der Maur, is accompanied by synthesised strings and radio excerpts of an astronaut circumnavigating the Earth millions of miles beneath him. The track closes with a strident chord that Giorgio Moroder could have used on the Scarface soundtrack.
No, the album is not conventional, though being so would only insult the Hole sideperson. Not all of it works. “Skip a Beat” is a poor choice as record closer, with gruff drum beats and shoddy Enya-esque chants. It will divide audiences, although nobody can argue with the commitment and effort put into the project. Somewhere in the recording, a woman cries out for a fairer world: a feminist apotheosis. “Fancy Piece” demonstrates a keen ear for pop melody, a road the songwriting bassist could venture into in the future as a more palatable and commercial alternative to BASS WOMB ROOM: My ’90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recording.
In this effort to push the boundaries of artistry, the erstwhile Hole member Melissa Auf der Maur has created something vitally interesting. The result isn’t the intended target; evidently, the journey and process are far more valuable to the songwriter. Judging by the finished product, it was quite the process, quite the journey.