New Album of Duo Jamming in Cyberspace

courtesy of Play MPE

Today Robot Love Music released what may be the first full-length recording of sessions performed in cyberspace. Fallout is a new album from the duo of keyboardist Mick Rossi, based in New York, and guitarist Johnny Valentino, living in Los Angeles. Each performer played in a studio on his own “turf,” Outlier Studio in Brooklyn for Rossi and Sanctuary Studio in Los Angeles for Valentino. As of this writing, the album is available only for MP3 download.

There is an absence of any metadata discussing how this album was made, let alone the ideas behind any of the ten tracks. All that has been documented is that the tracks were recorded in March, which means early on in the “brave new world” of shelter-in-place and social distancing. I would like to believe that at least some of the tracks were products of real-time jamming, but they could just as easily have come about through the exchange of tracks laid down first at one site and then at the other. All that I can say with any certainty is that, when a steady beat is required, it is maintained reliably!

Most of the tracks have titles that serve as reflections on the pandemic. I have to confess that my closest attachment is to the second track, whose title is “bees are walking.” That is because one day, when my wife and I were returning from picking up supplies from our favorite mom-and-pop grocery store, I saw a bee walking (more like dragging itself) along the sidewalk, leading me to wonder whether or not it had been infected with the virus. I have to assume that Rossi, credited as composer of this track, had a similar experience.

Over the course of the entire album, however, there is a convincing sense of give-and-take between the two musicians. Both of them were also equipped with percussion and synthesizer gear. In addition, each has several fascinating variations on his “primary” instrument. Rossi also plays a Roland Fuzz Clav, a harmonium, and Farfisa gear. To these he adds a guzheng (Chinese zither). Valentino supplements his guitar work with a ukulele and the Danelectro Baby Sitar.

As a result there is an impressive diversity of sonorities that can be evoked to differentiate the titles of the individual tracks. This makes for a highly absorbing listening experience for those choosing to listen to the album in its entirety, rather than adding the tracks to a playlist subjected to shuffling. In my own case none of the tracks led me to reflect on my own reaction to prevailing social conditions, but that was just because I was too wrapped up in all of those sonorities. (Nevertheless, the “plastic Jesus” reference at the end of “eraser foot” prompted a thoroughly affectionate belly laugh!)