Record Review - 4 February 19 2003

Hearing the gauzy grit of electro/acoustic composer Chris Jeely (recording solo as Accelera Deck, and as Slinger with percussionist Brad Davis), and then hearing he’s from Birmingham, it’s not inconceivable to assume Birmingham, England. Jeely’s compositions have a desolate, introverted waft familiar to those versed in the melancholy mechanization from Europe’s isolated isle. But Jeely’s from Birmingham, Ala.

Accelera Deck’s late-’90s loop-based, reverb-washed material often received My Bloody Valentine and Main comparisons, but Jeely has since gone from shoegazer to stargazer. The more “approachable” Twilight’s pensive, abraded atmospherics and minor-key melodies capture a tinny shuffle in the manner of ghost images (perhaps) imprinted in SETI static swarms or the dense drone sculptures of Christian Fennesz. The White Summer full-length and Fire Maps are granular tone poems — gray shifts of pixilated sonics like smeared Magic Eye paintings, revealing beauty with no set rhythm and unforced patience.

Accelera Deck/Slinger perform at Eyedrum Sat., Feb. 22.