Written by: Dave Cantrell
Sometimes it seems that certain words that are phonetically related but, in the strictest sense, could definition-wise barely consider themselves third cousins twice removed, nonetheless by the very virtue of their rhythmic rhyming similarity begin to blend toward each other via the implication of language. Take, for intstance, ‘squanderers’ and ‘wanderers.’ While the former is generally considered the more pejorative of the two given its implication of precious time frittered away, we at SEM, after a brief discussion here in the office, have come to the persuasive opinion that the two, despite convention’s insistence over the centuries, are more of less symbiotic twins. Which is to say, one likely cannot be but guilty of squandering while exploring whatever wonders are on offer while wandering. With that settled, then, we turn our attention to the latest single from the extraordinarily sublime ambient guitar trio Squanderers (Wendy Eisenberg, David Grubbs Kramer) called, appropriately perhaps given this opening paragraph, “Theme For Insufficient Overpreparation,” taken from their new full-length “Skantagio” (released today; that’s the cover up above).
Mixing with a subdued insistence footage of the basic struggle and strife of merely trying to remain alive (ie rising to the occasion amidst the pure existential challenge of, well, basically just getting out of bed in the morning), interspersed with flash cards of a sort laying out the basis of what’s called The Preparedness Paradox – the inevitable gist of which really hits at 4:01 – the visual more than exemplifies the naggingly gentle tensions at play in the track itself, the three guitarists/multi-instrumentalists both pulling against and insisting upon a harmony of purpose, a quest that, somehow, ends up sounding profoundly reassuring or anyway that was this listener’s response, a sort of wonderfully agitated peace descending on me while the track unspools over its near-six minute length that, by the not surprising way, goes by way too fast. All of this will come as little-to-no surprise to anyone familiar with the participants’ CVs, chock full as they are of a type and level of seldom-seen/heard compositional pop experimentalism, but even those among you yet-hep to the collective’s exemplarily skewed work over the decades will find a quiet intrigue pulling at your senses, one that will, in however subtle a way, remain with you for the rest of your day if not week, if not…
And, really (as if this even needs to be said), what else is the purpose of art if not to engage in such a way as to linger in our consciousness even as we putter about the rest of life’s relatively mundane tasks as they present throughout the day? That’s the magic of it, surely, the necessity of it even, an essential impact that “TFIO” manifests as gently as it does insistently. Art, you say? You want art? Click no further…
