
Venetic: Ambient Headroom
By Jacob Conner
Sort of a loose-limbed janglefest, Venetic is the brainchild of Wayne Stuart McCallum. Eastern Variations and Distortion is Beautiful set the tone here with scratchy, meandering guitar figures and whispered vocals. Subsequent lo-fi pop structures address metaphysical questions facing a young man trying to make sense of the world and are clothed in folksy and beatnik-noodle instrumentation, articulated in an even-tempered conversational manner. Some amusing lyrical concerns emerge - from Satori at the Picture Show: "She ain't exactly Sheryl Crow / Can't afford to be fussy though". The Spanish language Segue swings in a tic-tacky fashion and touches of recorder, harmonica and organ throughout lend a down-home ramshackle charm. Wah-wah squalls are occasionally painful but balanced somewhat by vanishing-point delayed guitar strumming. File under embryonic experimentation. www.venetic.com.
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