MRI - Litany for a Return

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  • It'd be hard to overstate how striking it was to hear MRI back at the beginning of what would be called microhouse. The duo's leading edge owed to their minimalism, of course, but more lasting than that was the way they framed minimalism against notions of spirit, sensuality, sweat—the makings of house, essentially, and matters rarely applied to the syllabus of minimalistic studies. It's a tribute to MRI's influence that the idea doesn't sound the least bit extraordinary or surprising now, and it certainly doesn't as it plays out in three tracks from the new album Black Swan collected here. "Dancer/Vaudeville" kicks off with bongos, a little Chicago-style syncopated percussion, pinched hi-hats, a fleshy simulated handclap beat—all of it solid but none of it especially striking. "Litany for a Return" ups the speed a touch, but MRI's sense of space gives it all a drifting quality still. "Little White Cloud That Cried" lays backs and leans into some vocal cut-up processing that calls to mind old clicks-and-cuts atomization. It's the most unusual track here, and the best for the same reason.
  • Tracklist
      A Litany For A Return B1 Little White Cloud That Cried B2 Dancer/Vaudeville
RA