Jordan Adragna - tourworthy.com
Cross-posted from https://www.tourworthy.com/articledetails/it-came-from-the-basement-new-music-from-thou-emma-ruth-rundle-eels-of-love-and-chris-opperman
Chris Opperman’s 35 track mind bender
Recommended if you like: Frank Zappa, 100 Gecs, Captain Beefheart
The album title says it all: Chamber Music from Hell. The latest piece from New Jersey composer Chris Opperman is spastic, jarring, and occasionally atonal all by design. Taking inspiration from musical rebels like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, Opperman forces the listener onto their head. Clocking in at a whopping hour and six minutes and consisting of 35 tracks, this piece throws in everything, including the kitchen sink.
The piece opens with a soundscape of crickets and a robotic voice asking, “Where Is Everybody?” This then devolves into “The Fermi Paradox,” brought in with spastically dancing strings that give way to an even more disgruntled winds arrangement, which sounds almost like an analog version of black midi. “Composition V,” a movement consisting of five parts, maintains a kind of frantic elegance using traditional instruments to convey something that is anything but traditional. It is as if several pieces are being played at once, but they all miraculously happen to be in the same key, for the most part.
This frantic string arrangement eventually gives way to “Owl Flight,” presenting a drastic mood shift. Gone is the strings’ freneticism, and it is replaced with minimalism and unsettling silence. Consisting only of drums, it seems to be a comparison of an owl to a military plane as there are marches interspersed throughout the arrangement. Steady flams and paradiddles and some growling timpani give the song eerie pomp and circumstance. The reserved nature of this track leads me to believe that it knows something that I don’t, and I am desperate to find out what it is.
If you thought that two styles of classical composition would be enough for Opperman, you would be wrong. “Are We Living In A Computer Simulation?” takes another drastic stylistic shift. Gone are the classical elements for something more reminiscent of Yngwie Malmsteen (which seems to be a trend for this week). A crunchy hair metal shredding guitar performance is equal parts showy and melodic, all culminating to a triumphant sounding company front. Everyone is doing overtime on this track. The drums are beyond busy, the bass is grooving like its life depended on it, and as stated earlier, the guitar is going off.
If David Lynch composed an original film score, I think this is what it would sound like. The record has something it is trying to tell the listener, but it is not at the surface level. Clues are sprinkled throughout for the listener to decipher the underlying meaning. The best way to summarize this record is that it is a musical scavenger hunt through a carnival funhouse in hell. Definitely give this one a try.