{"id":4439,"date":"2017-03-30T16:15:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wasserbassin.com\/site\/product\/marc-barreca-music-works-for-industry-lp\/"},"modified":"2021-03-17T19:11:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T19:11:52","slug":"marc-barreca-music-works-for-industry-lp","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/product\/marc-barreca-music-works-for-industry-lp\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Barreca – Music Works For Industry – LP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marc Barreca\u2019s<\/strong> “Music Works for Industry” <\/strong>is a layered assertion. An economic mantra for the mind to spin, like the many loops on this recording, or churn, as gears of some godhead machine. From the pool of playful compositions, a social subtext appears \u2013 a somewhat sardonic riposte to the commercial and cynical abuse of music and musicians. The work profits the listener over industry. Said another way, its motivations are more generative than lucrative.<\/p>\n

No longer than four minutes, no shorter than two, each piece on\u00a0“MWFI”<\/strong> is a fragment of modern life. Propaganda transmitted between the click of the remote or the turn of the dial. Friend and collaborator K. Leimer<\/strong> checks Cluster<\/strong>, Steve Reich<\/strong>, Iannis Xenakis<\/strong>, and Morton Subotnick<\/strong> as esoteric influences on “MWFI”<\/strong> in the album\u2019s liner notes, while one might imagine Upton Sinclair<\/strong>, Studs Terkel<\/strong>, or Chris Anderson<\/strong> as egalitarian influences.<\/p>\n

Made with musicians, performance artists, and a bespoke instrument maker, Barreca<\/strong> combines multiple disciplines into a collective, industrious whole. An experiment fabricated in the synth and tape studio at the artist-run alternative space and\/or<\/strong> (Seattle\u2019s version of NYC\u2019s The Kitchen<\/strong>), Barreca<\/strong> manipulates dynamic sound sources into tidy, minimal arrangements using synthesizers, modified instruments, tape looped voices, and melodic, metallic phrases.<\/p>\n

To start, \u201cCommunity Life\u201d strews these elements across the assembly line to meet their maker. The album continues with \u201cShopping,\u201d countering ominous, mechanical sounds with light, playful tones, perhaps representative of the clash of production versus exchange values. On \u201cHotcake\u201d we hear men\u2019s voices, chains, and hissing steam in a methodical but urgent progression that could soundtrack Fritz Lang\u2019s<\/strong> silent film, Metropolis<\/em>. A woman seductively intones \u201cNerve Roots Are Uncontrollable\u201d on the track of the same name. \u201cOrganized Labor\u201d also incorporates a voice, speaking the acronym I.W.W. \u2013 International Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies \u2013 as the music falls in line and wobbles along.<\/p>\n

The cover of \u201cMWFI\u201d<\/strong> features a black and white photo of a figure in silhouette, backlit at a window, softened with curtains and plants. Maybe this is the room where the music was made: a private space, a refuge from some industrial work or at least the dubious fruits of this labor. In a way, listening to the music is entering a space without work, an apple to pluck and eat without wage or taxation.<\/p>\n

One can imagine photographer Chauncey Hare<\/strong> listening to \u201cMusic Works for Industry\u201d<\/strong> as he moved from documenting domestic interiors to the bleek efficiency of American offices. His black and white portraits of workers, isolated and obscured by cubicles and files, and published in This Was Corporate America<\/em>, led to Hare\u2019s disillusionment with the art market. Not wanting to sell images, he left photography, and become a therapist: publishing the self-help book, Work Abuse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps peering into the music industry led to Barreca<\/strong>\u2019s eventual career, and a similar impulse to more directly touch those at the effects of economic systems. While exploring the cassette version of “Music Works For Industry”<\/strong>, we found a business card tucked inside: Marc Barreca<\/strong>\u2014bankruptcy judge in Seattle. Material traces of the cassette are evident in the record\u2019s packaging, the album format a newly manufactured form for Barreca<\/strong>\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Even in post-industrial times, Barreca<\/strong>\u2019s music offers listeners easily consumable musings on current work conditions. Freedom To Spend<\/strong> accepts your hard-earned and fortuitously won money in exchange for these morsels, but also believes that you need not invest unless pressed.<\/p>\n

Freedom To Spend\/RVNG Intl.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom To Spend\/RVNG Intl.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Marc Barreca\u2019s<\/strong> “Music Works for Industry” <\/strong>is a layered assertion. An economic mantra for the mind to spin, like the many loops on this recording, or churn, as gears of some godhead machine. From the pool of playful compositions, a social subtext appears \u2013 a somewhat sardonic riposte to the commercial and cynical abuse of music and musicians. The work profits the listener over industry. Said another way, its motivations are more generative than lucrative.<\/p>\n

Even in post-industrial times, Barreca<\/strong>\u2019s music offers listeners easily consumable musings on current work conditions. Freedom To Spend<\/strong> accepts your hard-earned and fortuitously won money in exchange for these morsels, but also believes that you need not invest unless pressed.<\/p>\n

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