RECORD REVIEW: Carey, Michael Potter and Philipp Bückle expand their reach

Null Zone returns with another round of Southern-tinged guitar psychedelia and bold experimental music

Other People

CAREY: Other People
| Courtesy Null Zone


Null Zone is an experimental music label run by Athens-based guitarist and experimental musician Michael Potter, and has become a trusted purveyor of adventurous sounds from Georgia and abroad. Although modest, the label’s reach expands with each new batch of DIY tapes it produces. Now, the label returns with another new round of tapes, bringing some of the boldest work by Carey, featuring Dan Bailey of Faun and A Pan Flute, and Philipp Bückle, along with new offerings by Potter himself.

Other People is the latest release from Carey. Dan Bailey has already established himself as a restrained composer in his own right. His previous release, IV (Crash Symbols), arrived in March 2014, introducing Bailey’s elegant and ornate musical style. Other People goes even deeper into the loose and lucid transitions from airy modern classical composition to rustic tone and texture studies. “The Beauty in Failure” (featuring Benjamin Shirley on cello) and “The Phase” throw back to his earlier, Steve Reich-inspired symphonic permutation music. Elsewhere, Carey follows new paths: “Growth & Madness,” “The Delusion of Doubles” and “The Green” lean toward the deep and highly structured post-rock of Chicago in the ’90s, namely Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol at their most meditative.

“I Don’t Want The Doctor’s Death” and “Nationalist Salad” are agile, but foreboding riffs on avant-garde jazz, while the title track, also featuring Shirley on cello, is pure primitive folk music. It’s another vivid reminder of the diversity within Bailey’s vast musical realm. ★★★★☆

PBMP Cover


They Never Got The Message / End Of Summer Music is a split tape featuring Potter and Philipp Bückle, whose previous sound experiments have surfaced on cassette and DIY imprints around the world, including Wounded Knife (Poland), Invisible City (U.K.), Awkward Formats (U.K.) and Magnetic Purely (Germany). Here, the German sound artist brings his first work released by a U.S. imprint and offers his most well-rounded work yet. Bückle’s side runs the gamut of eerie drones, processed loops and anonymous textures, intriguing interstitials and other situational sound sketches. “Monad,” “Immediately After You Let Go” and “Becoming Receptive” are shimmering, transcendent bits of tonal minimalism. “In the Undergrowth” and “Bricks” are seemingly random segments of aural curiosity, replaying the sounds in a particular room or scene. The set perfectly foils the meandering guitar pieces of Potter’s B-side. “Crickets, Cicadas, Fireflies” cuts right to the quick, perfectly highlighting Potter’s Southern-tinged guitar psychedelia. Looped and layered guitar tones take shape in a cool cloud of humid sound. “Outside Night” and “Harmonic Exit” only solidify this sentiment, extending the moonlit navel-gazing and emphasizing a regional charm. ★★★☆☆