Aural Fixations

CHRIS WHITLEY
Rocket House
(ATO) Chris Whitley fans are very loyal, even though they don't seem to understand their hero. Whitley changes with every record, allowing his creativity free reign without thought to how it will be received by his fanbase. As a result his groupies grow increasingly baffled every time he releases an album that doesn't sound his popular debut Living With the Law (which would be all of them). A lot of Whitley fans become distressed every time he puts down the National Steel guitar with which he's associated and picks up an electric, as if he's somehow betraying his own artistic spirit. They still see him as a bluesman in the vein of Anders Osborne or Keb' Mo', so the roiling erotic psychedelia found on albums like Din and Terra Incognita doesn't sit well with many of them. Too noisy and weird, they say. As if the recent Live at Martyr's, a solo acoustic live album in which Whitley treated his back catalog the way Ornette Coleman treats a jazz standard, wasn't the noisiest, weirdest thing he's yet done. But hey, at least he was playing steel guitar.

Well, those fans will be happy to know that Whitley sticks to the National for most of his new album Rocket House. What they may not be so fond of are the electronic textures surrounding that guitar. Producer Tony Mangurian, keyboardist Stephen Barber and, most tellingly, turntablist DJ Logic have as big a hand in building this house as Whitley. Groove-oriented beats, powerfully deep bass tones and all manner of samples, blips, buzzes and processing fill the spaces in between six strings and voice, which slither through the frippery like a snake through crabgrass. Whether looking through open windows like "Serve You" and "From a Photograph" or poking around the dense clutter of "Radar" and "To Joy," Whitley revels in the sonics as much as he does his songs. Speaking of which, they're damn good—"Little Torch," "Say Goodbye" and the enigmatic title track equal anything in his catalog. Plus his slinky, untethered voice is the same as it ever was, and he moans his impressionistic poetry like a lover seeing his sweetheart for the first time in weeks. With a bit of patience, open-minded fans will eventually realize the quality in the workmanship. Any house, no matter how gaudy or complex, will stand if it has a good foundation, and with his usual assortment of strong songs in the bedrock, Whitley's Rocket House will be standing for a good long time. Michael Toland

For fans of: David Baerwald, Joe Henry, R.L. Burnside's I Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down