Henderson, Matte with Marco Minnemann: The Veneer Of Logic

The multi-faceted guitarist/composer/guitar designer Matte Henderson's latest collaboration with drummer phenom Marco Minnemann, The Veneer Of Logic, is the artists first solo album. Henderson has spent the last thirty years plying his trade and working with a wide range of artists including Mick Karn, Natalie Merchant, Trey Gunn, Tony Levin and many others. Special guests include Tony Levin, Trey Gunn, Doctor Know (Bad Brains), David Torn and Pat Mastelotto.

Upon listening to The Veneer Of Logic the first thing that came to my mind is this music is beyond categorization. Bad Brains guitarist Doctor Know calls it "muttcore", meaning a combination of styles. I hear metal, ambient, jazz, industrial, electronic, techno and a few other genres I have likely missed. Suffice to say this is not an easy listen and will require more than a single session to fully absorb. The album begins with the industrial metal of "Whirled" and its metallic riffs, pounding drum assault and heavy electronic samples. The sampled vocals serve to add to the song's industrial charms. In direct contrast is the softer almost innocent sounding "Bible Camp" and its soothing mixture of poppy keys and Gwen Snyder's lovely wordless vocal arrangement. "PPGF" is a more techno tune with a wall of sound onslaught that stops and starts, sampled vocals and electronic keyboard sounds. One of the albums more strange offerings is the demented "So Much More (Killing)", made all the more creepy by Charles Manson's sampled voice.

My one complaint is the lack of discernable melodies in most of the tracks. I listened to the album three times and it is still taking some time to sink in. A grower if there ever was one. Of course, this is about as far away from pop music one can get save for a couple of moments. I do have to give Henderson a lot credit for making utterly creative music that is both original and completely devoid of commercialism.

The accompanying DVD sets the music to a visual collage of images that is both strange and imaginative. However, I did find it hard to focus on the DVD as the images change quite rapidly.

I think this will mostly appeal to fans of industrial metal and electronic/techno avant-garde music. The best thing to do is listen to the samples provided on the 7d media website.

Track Listing:
1. Whirled
2. Bible Camp
3. PPGF
4. Can't Indict A Flower
5. Myer's Lane
6. So Much More (Killing)
7. My Whirled
8. Come On
9. Single Cell Shark
10. Balinese Funeral
11. Tomatte

Added: January 29th 2014
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Label's Official Site
Hits: 2395
Language: english

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