Alan Morse Davies on the Verge Between Song and Sound (MP3s)

Alan Morse Davies has been posting some his earlier recordings, most recently Adrift, a collection of work from 1990 through 1994. It alternates been dreamy lo-fi folk pop that’s lost in a haze, favorably akin Robert Wyatt or Syd Barrett, and these little snippets of song-less ambient experimentation. The highlight is “Indigo Carmine,” a spine-tingling layering of female singing, slight beading of adjacent tones and weird sense of echo-induced premonitions and instant hindsight (MP3); for longtime Davies listeners, it’s a fascinating preview of the work in later years he’d do with indigenous folksong. “Salvia” is a slow procedure of cyborg humming (MP3), and “Drone Thing” a splendidly peculiar mix of attenuated chords that are broken up with rhythmic gaps (MP3). There’s great material throughout, and the pop songs show evidence of the inventive sonic tinkering that is the focus elsewhere, like the raspy feedback that comes across like a lost Robert Fripp guitar solo on the dolorous “Sunshine Life”