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Written by Laura Hamlett Tuesday, 13 May 2014 20:05

While I admire the songwriter’s genius in the way he sees and hears music in even the oddest sounds and combinations, River Mirror is not an easy listen.

 

 

 

Infinity Broke is the new project from Bluebottle Kiss mastermind Jamie Hutchings; as you’d expect, it displays the same musical insight as its predecessor. Unfortunately, the first few times I tried to listen to River Mirrors, I had a headache. The thrilling, meandering, at times hammering music of intro track “Termites”—instrumental until over seven and a half minutes in, is a sonic whirlwind; this does not lend itself well to pain-dulled senses. In fact, many of the songs never seem to even out, music-wise, their tone always sounding a bit irregular.

As with his work both solo and with Bluebottle Kiss, Hutchings delivers lines that are poetic and insightful. Unlike those works, though, Infinity Broke’s music is more experimental, with odd time signatures and juxtapositions, strange sounds mixed over and layered together. A prime example here is “Water,” a two-minute track of—you guessed it—the sound of water, plus some other not-exactly-musical noises. Although Hutchings’ unique, gorgeous voice appears on all but one of the tracks, the eight songs here are largely, and oddly, instrumental—the only exception being the first half of concluding track “Gallows Queue,” which could quite easily be a Bluebottle song. While I admire the songwriter’s genius in the way he sees and hears music in even the oddest sounds and combinations, River Mirror is not an easy listen; sadly, it’s often not even an enjoyable one. As much as I hate to say it, Infinity Broke may best be left to the art house crowd. C- | Laura Hamlett